Reaching for the Sky
by EraKnight
Summary: Changes occur gradually, almost like the movement of clouds across the sky. Five people, full of love and hope will take the world by storm and change it little by little. One has given up. One's just started. Another is determined. The next is free. And the last is cursed. All are reaching for the sky.
1. Devil Child

**A/N: So, my sister, our friend, my cousin, and I have all decided to write a fanfiction with our OCs in them. We've all wrote our own versions of it, so… Maybe you should go check theirs out too (when they get it out). Also, this is just a preview, so the rest won't be out for a while, since I plan on finishing it before I put the rest up. :) **

**Reac****hing for the Sky**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, although Caitlin and the plot are mine. **

**Chapter 1: Devil Child**

_"A soul needs a purpose to live..."_

_~Gaara~_

Madara stared at the paper. _I just wish this damn thing would catch on fire. You know, I have half a mind to do that, but it would be a waste of chakra. Besides, old jutsus like these need time to work. Or, they work in ways you never expected them to. Still… _Madara sighed.

Crumpling the paper in his hand, Madara threw it at the wall of his cave. Minutes later, he stood and stored it again in the case that he had for these purposes. _Maybe it will be useful later…_

x~x~x

The blonde haired child strode out of the Academy quickly, her eyes firmly planted on the ground. She continued her pace past the other children that were being picked up by parents and siblings, things that she didn't have.

Five minutes later, she had arrived at the orphanage. Yuki-san, the caretaker of the children there, stood in the doorway, smiling as the girl arrived. "So, Caitlin, how was your first day?"

The girl paused, and swiftly glanced up. "Horrible," she muttered.

"Oh, I'm sorry sweetie." She paused. "The Uzumaki boy is in your grade, correct?"

"Yes, Yuki-san. He's in my year."

Yuki-san frowned harshly. "Stay away from him. He's trouble." With that proclamation, she turned and ambled into her room.

A brunette girl strolled out of her hiding spot from behind the corner. "I don't understand. Why do we have to stay away from him? I mean, it's not like he has a contagious disease or something."

The other girl shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he does have a disease."

"No, he would be in the hospital if he did," Tenten said, frowning.

"What if it's a disease that's not contagious and one that they can't cure?" the blond girl countered.

"Like you said, who knows?" Tenten shrugged. "Hey, want to go train?"

"Yeah," the other girl replied, finally glancing up with a smile, emerald eyes burning brightly.

"Well then, let's go!"

x~x~x

The girl, of course, didn't heed Yuki-san and spoke with the boy, whose name she later learned was Naruto. They became fast friends, even if they acted very different at times.

"Please, Caitlin? It'll just be an itty-bitty prank. Besides, it's gonna be on Kiba. Remember, the dog boy who you said needed someone to take him down a couple of notches? It'll be fun!" Naruto said, grinning from ear to ear.

The freckled girl frowned at him. "Yes, I remember Kiba, and even if he probably deserves to be tricked, I will not be the one that does so."

"Ah, but-"

"No buts or what ifs about this," Caitlin informed him. "And no amount of pouting will change my mind."

Of course, Naruto still sulked, not that it changed the girl's mind. She was adamant in her refusal to help Naruto with his pranks, no matter her dislike for the person that he wished to hoax. Caitlin knew that if Yuki-san heard that she had pranked someone she would have a fit, especially if she heard that Naruto had helped her. Every year the woman would remind Caitlin to stay away from Naruto, and every year, the advice was ignored.

X~x~x

One day, Naruto and Caitlin were playing outside the academy. It was Caitlin's 7th birthday, so the two best friends decided to celebrate it together with their other friends, Hinata and Shino. They met their other friends when Caitlin noticed that none of the girls, except for Hinata, would going near Shino because of his bugs, so naturally Caitlin and Naruto decided to join in on their game of tag. They had become fast friends since then.

The children didn't realize that a surprise birthday party had been prearranged for Caitlin, one that Tenten was not let in on, so the older girl couldn't inform the younger one. Because Yuki-san required for Caitlin to show up to her party, she arrived at the academy soon after class had been dismissed. The woman was in for a surprise as she realized that Caitlin was playing with the Jinchuriki like they were best friends.

Crossly, she stormed up to the child and grabbed her arm and shook her, not noticing the alarm in the blonde's eyes. "What have I told you about that monster?" she snarled, shaking the girl violently as she said the last word.

"I know what you've told me and- and I don't care! Naruto is my friend, and I won't give him up for the world!" the normally quiet girl stuttered as she faced the snarling Yuki-san.

"Young lady, we are going home! You're grounded!" Yuki-san shouted as she pulled the unwilling girl away from her friends.

"C-Caitlin-chan, will you be alright?" Hinata asked as Naruto stared guiltily at the ground. Shino's eyes through his dark glasses seemed to bore holes through her, asking the same question.

"Yeah, I will be. Don't worry!" she shouted as the dark haired woman pulled her further and further away from the other children.

x~x~x

When they arrived at the orphanage, for a couple of minutes all Yuki-san did was stare stonily at the young child. "You will never see that boy again, not while you live under my roof," she said, still staring at Caitlin.

Tiny fist clenched as the child stared back, refusing to lose this battle. "Then I'll leave. Consider me gone because I am never coming back to this place again," the child snapped back as she turned away and marched to her room, opening her drawers as she passed them and grabbing fists full of clothing that she tossed unto the bed. She quickly turned towards the closet and grabbed her suitcase from within it as Yuki-san appeared in the room, over her shock by now.

"Young lady, you will not-"

"I'll tell the Hokage. He'll let me buy my own apartment, and I'll live next to Naruto. I won't give up one of my best friends just because you tell me to," Caitlin said, looking her dead in the eye before turning and resuming her packing.

Yuki-san's lips pursed in anger as she turned away from the child she'd raised since she was just a baby. Somewhere in the back of Caitlin's mind, she'd been hoping that the woman she'd looked to as a motherly figure would understand, but she should have known that she wouldn't. No one seemed to comprehend anything when it came to Naruto.

As Caitlin walked out the door, she found Tenten to be waiting for her. "Will you be okay?" the older girl asked.

Caitlin just smiled through the tears that were now pouring steadily down her face and nodded her head. "Don't worry too much about me. I'll be fine," she answered.

Tenten watched worriedly as one of her good friends disappeared into the crowd, gone from the orphanage that she had lived at her entire life. It would be a huge change for the blonde girl who usually didn't care for such variables. She would make an exception this time for Naruto's sake.

x~x~x

Tugging her suitcase along, Caitlin trudged down the path towards one of Konoha's training grounds. She was staring at the ground when suddenly a pair of ninja sandals enter her field of vision. Looking up, she saw a one eyed man with silver hair was in her path.

His eye crinkled at the corners strangely, almost as though he were smiling at her, but she couldn't tell because he was wearing a mask over the lower half of his face. "Why do you look so down, kid?"

Caitlin blinked at him in surprise. Most people didn't care for her because she hung out with Naruto, so it was shocking to see someone talk to her without a trace of malice in their voice. "I was kicked out of the orphanage I lived at, and now I'm trying to figure out what my options are."

"Well, what are your options then?" the silver-haired ninja (she assumed that he was one because he was wearing a vest that only those of chunin rank or higher could wear) asked.

"Um… going to the Hokage and asking for the allowance allowed to orphans and buying my own apartment, or living with Naruto. I don't really want to impose on Naruto, but it would be the best option because we could pool our money together…" the girl trailed off in thought, though she didn't miss the slight widening of his one eye when he heard of Naruto or the shake intake of breath when he heard that Naruto lived alone. Still, she decided not to ask and filed it away into her mind for later. She was too shy to ask outright anyway.

"I… I can definitely see your reasoning there. Are you two close?" he asked.

"Why do you want to know? Do you hate him like nearly everyone else does?" snapped the distrustful girl, who wasn't very sure how to take his question. Was he asking because he would hate her too if she were friends with Naruto, or did he have another purpose here?

"No, I don't hate him. The other villagers' hate is irrationally misplaced because of their need to blame others for an event that could not have been controlled."

"Oh," murmured the girl, who was not quite sure she understood. She had always thought that there was no reason to it, or that it was because of his pranks, but it had to do with something that Naruto hadn't done? Caitlin could see why he called it irrational if this was so.

"So, are you going to answer my question now?" the man asked.

"Er… yeah, as long as you answer one of my own questions for every question you ask," answered the awkward blonde. "And to answer your question, yeah, Naruto's one of my best friends, along with Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino."

It was strange for Kakashi to realize that Naruto was on his own. He had tried to adopt him when he was younger, but he hadn't been allowed to, and now to connect with his sensei's son through a little girl was bizarre. The Hokage may have told Kakashi that he couldn't tell Naruto of his heritage, but that didn't mean that he couldn't become a father figure to him.

"Now, what is your purpose in asking about Naruto?" the girl demanded, staring at him with cold green eyes, bashfulness being overrode by her protective feelings for her friends.

Kakashi shrugged, not planning on telling this girl the truth, though he had to admire how she tried to protect Naruto. "Don't really have a purpose. What's your purpose towards Naruto?"

The girl frowned at him. "That's not a real answer, so I'm not telling you until you stop avoiding the question!"

"I don't like the way the villagers treat him," Kakashi answered again, some of the truth showing through in his answer.

"I'm his friend," the girl answered to his own question after an awkward pause in which it took her a second to realize that that was all Kakashi was going to say. "The way he's treated is despicable. I hate it. At times, I hate the villagers, too, because of this…"

He sighed quietly. He could understand why she hated them, but it didn't mean that it was right. "Kid," he started to say, but she interrupted him.

"Caitlin. And if you're worried that I'm gonna become a murdering psychopath, don't. Naruto wouldn't let me even if I wanted to be one. Which I don't, by the way."

"Name's Kakashi. That wasn't exactly what I was thinking, but good to know…" Kakashi trailed off.

"Your eye…um?" Caitlin suddenly questioned, shyly glancing towards his face.

"A mission," Kakashi answered, deciding not to reveal everything about himself.

The girl frowned at him, becoming slightly bolder. "That's not a real answer, Bakashi."

Glaring at the girl, he stated, "Well, it's the truth. I lost it in a mission, and that's all I'm gonna tell you."

"Ask your question then, if you're gonna ask another," the blonde said as she frowned into the distance, probably thinking of Naruto if he was correct and it was the orange bloom that she was staring at.

"How in the world did you become so annoying?" Kakashi demanded, rubbing his temples. "You're not as bad as Gai, at least."  
>"You know, I'm counting that as a question, Bakashi. And I'm not annoying. Why do you wear a mask?" asked the girl, obviously planning on asking the most aggravating questions she could.<p>

The silver hair nin was saved from answering as Gai himself appeared in front of them. "Kakashi, my eternal rival. And your most youthful companion is?" he asked when he saw her.

Caitlin stared at him for a couple of moments, speechless. She took in his outfit, slightly horrified, and answered," Caitlin. Um, you are?"

He answered with a sparkling grin and a thumbs up, "Maito Gai, Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast!"

Caitlin slowly blinked, and then said, "Aren't you a taijutsu master?" She had read about him somewhere in one of her text books, and thought that it would be a great opportunity to get better at taijutsu, which she was atrocious at.

Kakashi suddenly sputtered. "How do you know about him, but not about me?!"

"Don't know. Maybe you're just not important enough to be in the text book," Caitlin stated with a shrug. In truth, she hadn't finished reading it yet, and if he was the rival of the Maito Gai, then it was very likely that he was. Of course, Caitlin wasn't about to tell him that.

"To answer your question, yes, I am the most youthful taijutsu master of Konoha!" Gai interrupted, giving Caitlin a million watt grin.

"Can you teach me?" Caitlin asked, childish excitement taking over as she literally started jumping up and down.

Gai's grin somehow sparkled even more when she said this. "Of course, most youthful Caitlin! Be at training ground seven tomorrow at four!" He then disappeared in a flurry of leaves.

Caitlin frowned at where he disappeared. "At four? Isn't that a little late to start training on a Saturday?"

Kakashi snickered evilly. "Poor, poor little devil child. He meant four in the morning." He then started chuckling evil as Caitlin gaped at him.

"Hey! I'm not a devil child!"

**Omake**

"Hey, hey, Bakashi, whatcha reading?"

Kakashi froze, his mouth hanging open under his mask. What are you supposed to tell a seven year old when they ask you what you're reading when you're reading porn?

"Um," Kakashi stuttered, trying to come up with a good lie. A child friendly good lie.

"My most youthful student, you would not like what Kakashi is reading. It is most unyouthful," Gai said, saving the silver ninja from what could have been one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. "Now, go run five laps around Konoha!"

"Okay," Caitlin said, as she started jogging towards the gate so she could run around the inside edge.

Kakashi let out a breath. "Thanks Gai, I really owe you for that."

"Well, now that you mention it my most youthful rival, I've noticed that you haven't wore your birthday present that I gave you. Could you wear it tomorrow, maybe?"

x~x~x

The next day, Kakashi was seen wearing a green jumpsuit much like Gai's, with a blonde girl trailing after him, snickering as she read a book that, thank goodness, was not Icha Icha.


	2. The Dawn

**Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Naruto, although Megan is nightheart777's and the plot is mine.**

**Chapter 2: The Dawn**

_"Even if I must take the devil's fruit, I must gain power."_

_~Uchiha Sasuke~_

Megan's been in the Akatsuki for almost as long as she could remember. Of this life, at least.

Past lives are such fickle things, having lived their lives in alternate realities, and then, nothing for the longest time. When there is finally _something,_ your memories are taken.

Of course, when you have the fucking Juubi in you, you still have your memories. Sometimes, those things make things much harder when you would hope they would make them easier.

Nobody in the Akatsuki knew her secret, about the Juubi or about herself being from another world. If she had anything to say about it, they never would know. Or at least, they wouldn't know until it was too late and she had stopped Tobito's evil pan.

Most people wouldn't want to end up in the organization that would likely kill you once they learn your secret. _Most _being the key word. Megan was happy she had ended up in the Akatsuki. Maybe, she could change them from the inside.

Her sister wouldn't have been so optimistic in such a situation. She wouldn't have believed that she could change them from the inside, especially without revealing the truth about Tobi. Megan still hadn't come up with a plan for that yet, but she would get to it. She would not wing something as important as this.

Thinking about her sister made her reminisce, and think about how she got here. Well, getting to this universe sure as hell wasn't pleasant.

x~x~x

"Look out!" shouted someone; Megan wasn't too sure if it was her sister, her cousin, or Gwen. Her cousin always had a penchant for yelling out stupid things, or things that were _right in fucking front of them._

Tires screeched, but there was no way they were going to make it. Especially with those stupid boards in the car that were likely to impale one of them. Crazy drunkard, for driving a car in the middle of the night. _Gwen's never gonna be able to stay over after this…_

Her body suddenly jerked backwards. _Well, what do ya know? I jinxed myself, _she thought as she stared at the wooden board protruding out of her chest. _Oh, look at that, another one, _she thought just as another board pierced her eye, finally ending her pain.

x~x~x

Megan's memories and her consciousness awoke just as her mother finished sealing the Juubi into her. The women, dead, fell to the ground beside the baby, sightless eyes staring into green ones.

**So, this is my new host. How pitiful.**

_Shit, _Megan thought as she realized that the _Juubi_ had just been sealed inside of _her. I die, and this is what happens? Why couldn't I have, like, Kurama or Shukaku?_

A deep chuckled sounded in her mind. **You are scared because you are afraid that your precious Obito will hate you for stealing all of his glory. **She could almost feel it tilt its head at her, sizing her up. **I sense the want to be a ninja in you. What if I told you that I could grant you that power, and all you have to do is seize it?**

_I would take it, _Megan replied to him in her head, baby fist clenching.

If she could see it, Megan imagined that it would be grinning. **Then you have it, **it hissed through her mind as she felt pain, in the places that she had been stabbed at in her past life. Her babyish screams rang out across the clearing she and the body was in, just as her body started twisting, turning into a 13 year old human body, naked and scarred.

Megan stared at the center of her chest, where there was a scar _that shouldn't be there. Her eye! _Terror welled up like lava in her chest, burning her and destroying who she used to be. A hand rose up to feel the left side of her face, tracing over the scarred left eye. _So, this had been the price for that power._

**Yes. Power comes with a high price, and the price for yours is your old body from your past life, scars and everything.**

"Okay, then what power have you given me, then?" Megan demanded, her voice thick from tears of pain and shock.

The Juubi chuckled. **Ah, but it would ruin the surprise if I told you. You have to find out for yourself.**

Megan sighed, looking around with a wince at the rainy landscape. _I need clothes, now. Sorry! _She grimaced as she pulled the clothing off the dead women.

_Okay, think Megan. You're in the Naruto world, obviously, and I presume that you're in Rain, or at least near it. You died in that car crash, so it is an easy guess that Caitlin, Daddy, Bobby, and Gwen may have died and ended up here also. You didn't remember anything until the Juubi was sealed into you, so it's safe to assume that they don't remember anything right now. Oh, and Caitlin's probably a baby! Or at least, Caitlin is and Daddy would be all grown up here. Er, I think. What if we were all born at the same time here? Or maybe we didn't all die in the car crash? Or maybe this is some kind of hallucination and I'm in a coma?_

**Stop it with your worrying. It is hurting my head. And no, this is very real.** **And before you ask, I have no clue if the others lived or not. Even if they died, I would have no clue if they had ended up in this world or in another world. I suppose we will found out, sooner or later.**

_Why are you helping me? _Megan demanded, more than a little confused. She had always thought that the Juubi was crazy, and didn't think. Of course, she should have known better, considering all the other bijus had personalities and thoughts.

**Why, I think that you'll take over the world.**

_I'd never do that!_

**I was joking. I've seen what is going to happen through your memories and I've decided that I would rather live and not be sealed into a psycho. Besides, your life will at least be slightly interesting, and something needs to break the monotony. **

x~x~x

The Juubi, for whatever reason, trained Megan, but never revealed her hidden powers. She finally unlocked them three years later.

The blonde girl snarled as the enemy ninja got in a lucky hit on her right side with his katana. She striked out with her simple chain scythe that was being used almost like a whip. It wrapped around his throat after slicing into his side, and was pulled viciously by the sixteen year old until all the breath had left the man's body. She let the chain go limp and efficiently unwrapped it from the shinobi's throat. She then wrapped the chain around her waist, like a belt.

Megan's eye blinked as she realized that her left eye on her scarred side felt strange. She walked towards a puddle located on the other side of the road and stared into her only open eye, the other concealed by golden hair. Her blue stripes beneath her eyes stood out on her skin, causing her skin to almost seem to have a blue tint in the fading light.

She focused on her closed eye, feeling the scar that crossed over it. She had never tried to open it because she was afraid of what she would find. Maybe it had an eye. Or maybe there wasn't an eye on that side, just a gaping hole were one should be.

Slowly, she opened the eye, and her month fell open. The shocked look on her face would have been comical in a different situation. Where her left eye once laid was an eye that held, of all things, the Rinnegan.

"What's wrong with this world?!"

x~x~x

Megan made a name for herself with the strength that she possessed, and soon, the request that she had been waiting for came.

A woman in a black robe that had red clouds on it slowly walked towards the teenager. "You are not what I expected of the rumored Shadow Demon."

"Yeah, you expected a grown up, not a teenage rag-tag kunoichi that hasn't had any formal training."

The blue haired woman's eyebrows rose. "You have not had formal ninja training? Then how have you done all that you have done?"

Megan snorted. "Luck, and a good teacher."

Konan nodded, but did not ask who she was talking about. In their line of work, secrets were everywhere. "I have a proposal for you."

"Er, sorry, but I barely know you, so I'm gonna have to say no."

Konan only blinked to show her shock. "No?"

"No, I'm not gonna marry you when we barely know each other. Besides, I'm pretty sure you have to date first," Megan elaborated, a smirk on her face.

The amber eyed woman sputtered, and then said, "That's not the proposal I was about to make. What I want to know is if you will join the Akatsuki."

"Oh," Megan said, and then she pretended to think about it. "Sure. Why not?"

Konan sighed. She had a feeling that she may or may not regret that decision.

x~x~x

Life in the Akatsuki was strange. There were a rag tag group that all had very different personalities, and Megan knew that the personalities would only get wilder from there.

The only ones that hadn't joined yet were Itachi, Deidara, and Hidan. Orochimaru was still here, along with one of Kakazu's many partners. He killed at least one per week. The only reason he hadn't killed Orochimaru yet was because he bribed the miser.

Of course, she couldn't blame the snake for that (although she did blame him for many other things). She herself had had to bribe Kakazu when she caused him to lose patience with her, either through just talking or pranks. She suspected that he actually did like her because she was never frightened by his strange appearance and he hadn't _really_ tried to kill her yet. If he really wanted to, he could kill her and then take all of her money, but he hadn't. That had to count for something.

It was actually really fun to watch the Akatsuki interact with each other. Her favorite member had to be Tobi, though. He was her best friend, even though she knew what he truly was.

In her first life, her favorite character had always been Tobito. Though they now weren't characters, it didn't mean that she couldn't have favorites. Even if her favorite was evil. Hey, KK had always told her that everybody was in the gray, not black or white, so what the hell?

Megan was embarrassed to admit that she had a huge crush on Tobito. She knew better than to tell him though. He was too hung up on Rin, and besides, even if he wasn't, he wouldn't like her.

Megan grimaced at the thought. _Maybe I can hook up with Madara…_

**You forget that he is also what most would describe as 'evil'. Besides, I doubt you are his type. Too loud, I think. And how do you know that Obito doesn't like you and that he is just in denial?**

_What do you mean? _Megan frowned as she sat in her room, talking with the Juubi. She could only hope that Tobi didn't suddenly rush into her room for whatever reason. She loved Tobi, but goodness, he was hyper!

**I mean that what he felt for Rin was most likely a small crush that he blew way out of proportion. It wasn't ****_true love. _****Usually I do not meddle in these sorts of things, but considering I have to share a head with you, I would prefer it to not be filled with thoughts like '****_woe is me_****'.**

_Okay… So what are you suggesting I do, then?_

**Be as close as possible to him, and when the time comes, and he realizes the truth that what he is planning is wrong, you be there and help him pick up the pieces. He should hopefully realize the rest himself. If he does not, I will gladly help you beat sense into him.**

This startled a laugh out of her. The Juubi may be a crazy and evil biju, but sometimes she couldn't help but laugh at his antics. She just loved evil people. Er, bijus.


	3. Different Vision

**Disclaimer: I still don't own it, very sorry. Plot is mine, but Bobby is my cousin's, ANBU33's.**

**Chapter 3: Different Vision**

_"...But I work hard and never give up! That is my gift; my ninja way!"_

_~Rock Lee~_

"Hey! Get back here kid!"

Bobby laughed as he ran off with the bread that he had stolen for his family. He was careful about where he got it from since he didn't want good people to starve. Stealing from wealthy people, especially those in Orochimaru's favor, was okay.

His mother didn't like him stealing. She told him not to, but he had seen what happened when he didn't get food. His mother would get sick, and he didn't want that. So he stole food, even though he was told not to and even though he knew it was bad. Bobby didn't want to be bad.

He had been living like this ever since he could remember. He had strange eyes, special eyes, his mother told him, so he had to wear a blind fold over them and tell people that he was scarred, and didn't like people looking at it. Of course, this was a lie, which was bad, but Bobby didn't want to be caught by the bad people looking for him and his mother.

He sometimes wondered who those people were.

x~x~x

At twelve years old, his mother finally told him the whole story.

The light haired woman hesitated before she spoke. "Bobby, I think that you're old enough to learn the truth, the whole truth. Your father was a Hyuuga… It's where you get your eyes.

"I…I had drank too much and wasn't thinking… and well, I guess you know what happens next. My village was in a war, and so I left. I knew what they did to branch members of that clan, and I refused to allow that to happen to you."

She laughed hollowly. "I guess that it didn't change much. Maybe you would have had a better life there. You would have been able to become a ninja there. I don't really want you to, but if it is your dream… I will teach you what I can, but I'm a bit rusty."

The blonde boy's eyes widen, and happily, he said, "Yes!"

"I won't be able to help you much with your Byakugan, but you keep it on so often that I think you've got it handled… You'll be behind most ninja your age, but I guess you don't really care about that do you?" she asked as she watched her son as he laughed and shouted his happiness at the top of his lungs.

x~x~x

_Training's hard, _Bobby thought to himself as he tried to dodge his mother's attacks. More often than not, he was unsuccessful. He was giving it a good shot though, considering he had never done anything like that before.

After a particularly bad blow, his mother called it quits for the day, seeing that her son was worn out. She didn't think that he was made for this type of life. He seemed too good to be a ninja. Of course, she had seen other ninja that seemed like they were too good for this profession, but it usually didn't end well for them. So she would train her son until he surpassed her, and hope that it would be good enough for now.

x~x~x

The next day, ninjas passed through the area. He hid behind his mother until one of them paused, eyes like his that seemed to stare through his mother and _most likely were. _He moved towards them, but when he pressed closer to his mother, he stopped and continued on towards his companions.

"Kaa-chan?" Bobby asked as he stared with wide eyes through his blindfold. "He had eyes like mine. Is he my Tou-san?"

His mother smiled, in spite of the situation, at her son's childishness. "No, he's not your father, though he is related to him."

"Oh," the disappointed boy muttered.

His mother hesitated, and then said, "Try to stay away from him, okay? If you don't, he might take you away from mommy. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Kaa-chan, I understand." Hidden behind his back though as he said this were crossed fingers, but his mother didn't need to know that he was going to visit the strange man, right?

As soon as he was sure his mother was at her job, he left off in the direction the ninjas had gone in. It took him nearly an hour, but then, he found them. Or, they found him.

"Yo, kid, what are you doing?"

Bobby turned towards the voice of one of the ninjas. He seemed friendly enough, so Bobby asked him, "The ninja with the weird eyes, can I talk to him?"

The ninja stared blankly at him for nearly ten seconds before saying, "The Hyuuga?"

"Um, yeah. I think so."

"Alright, follow me," said the incredulous guard as he turned and led Bobby into the hotel that the ninjas were staying at. Bobby followed, blindly trusting the ninja.

When they arrived, the Hyuuga shooed everyone out of the room. One blonde shinobi in particular was difficult to get to leave, but he left in the end. As Bobby stared at the man as he left, he had the strangest feeling that he knew him. But that was impossible, wasn't it? He didn't know any shinobi personally.

"Kid, do you know anything about your eyes?" he demanded.

"Err… I know that I can see through my blindfold with them, and I can see through a lot more. Like the door over there… Um… My eyes look like they're blind, but they're not. Um… I'm not good with names, but I think Kaa-chan told they're called 'Byakugan'," Bobby answered, brow furrowed as he tried to remember everything.

The man frowned and then reached for Bobby's hair to move it out of the way of his forehead. "So, you don't have it…"

"Have what?" Bobby asked, tilting his head curiously.

The man gave a hollow laugh. "I was trying to just ignore this, but now the clan head needs to know. We can't have someone getting a hold of our eyes." He then grabbed Bobby and led him out of the room.

"We need to get back to Konoha," the Hyuuga said as he pulled Bobby with him.

"Why?" demanded the shinobi that had taken Bobby there.

"Because of this," the Hyuuga said as he ripped the blindfold off of Bobby's eyes.

"Hey!" Bobby shouted. "Kaa-chan told me to not take this off!"

The brunette shinobi whistled. "Wasn't expecting that," he muttered.

"We need to finish the mission," the blonde shinobi snapped, frowning darkly at his companions.

"This comes first," the Hyuuga argued. "If someone unlocked the secrets of the Byakugan, the Hyuuga would be history, and I refuse to let that happen to my clan."

"Well, when we first saw him, you were gonna leave him alone. Why is that?"

"I changed my mind, and that's all you need to know!" the Hyuuga snarled back at the blonde shinobi.

"No, it's not. Last time I checked, I was the mission captain, not you, Hyuuga-sama," snarled the shinobi sarcastically.

"Well, I think Hokage-sama would agree with me. Let's go check. Shall we?" snarled the Hyuuga right back.

Bobby felt shocked, His mother had been right. There were trying to take him away from her. He struggled in the man's grip so suddenly that the man let go.

"Hey! Kid!" he shouted as Bobby took off at a run. The blonde shinobi suddenly went into action and hit the pressure point on the back of the other twos necks, causing them to pass out.

The shinobi was suddenly in Bobby's way, and had grabbed his arm before he could even blink.

"Come on, kid. I'll let you stay with one of my friends. He's not gonna like the situation, but I don't think you or your mother want that seal on your forehead. Besides that, he can protect you from even most of the more powerful people out there, so…"

He turned towards the other shinobi and made a couple of hand signs and then opened their eyes. "That genjutsu should alter their memories and allow us the couple of hours it'll take to find him…

The shinobi crouched to the ground, and said, "Well? Get on. We don't have all day. Besides, it might take a while to find the guy; he pisses off a lot of people. Women and their husbands or boyfriends mostly, along with the stray shinobi."

Bobby quickly got on his back, and asked, "Who's the guy you're gonna take me and Kaa-chan to?"

The man smiled, and answered, "Jiraiya. He's one of the Three Sanin, like Orochimaru, though he's a much better person than the snake bastard."

"You sure?" Bobby demanded, eyeing him with suspicion.

"Yes, I'm very sure."

"Okay. I'm fine with it as long as Kaa-chan is."

x~x~x

"You did what?!"

_Uh-oh, I don't think Kaa-chan's gonna be okay with it._

The blonde shinobi stood there and took all the yelling, until finally, the boy's mother calmed down and said, quietly, "We have to leave?"

"Yes, you do. Sound never was a safe place to be at, and if one of my companions somehow gets around my genjutsu, then they'll know your location," the shinobi replied.

The woman nodded. "Then can you take us there?"

The man grinned, and replied, "Of course."


	4. Flightless Birds

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, only the plot. Gwen is Narufan0001's OC.**

**Chapter 4: Flightless Birds**

_"__When captured birds grow wiser, they try to open the cage with their beaks. They don't give up, because they want to fly again."_

_~Shiranui Genma~_

"Nii-san! Nii-san!"

The blonde boy looked down, startled. Peering into the boy's higher face was a brunette girl with bluish green eyes. Sighing, the boy lifted the much smaller girl into his arms. "What is it, Imouto, un?"

"Will you teach me how to make clay birds today?" loudly asked the freckled girl.

He sighed. His sister had been asking the same question for weeks on end. _What could it hurt?_

Quickly, he pulled some clay out of the pouch on his hip, and fed it to his hand, which soon enough burped the figurine out.

"It was that simple this whole time?" the girl asked, shocked.

The boy laughed. "It was, un. Now you try, Gwen." He then broke off a chunk of clay from the figurine and handed it to her.

Brow furrowed, the four year old fed the clay to her hand. Seconds later, it spit it out, not in the shape that she wanted though. It was just a strange mass of clay that didn't really look like anything.

Her brother laughed. "Hey, don't worry too much about it, un. I didn't get it for days, and I had Mom and Dad to help me." A sad smile appeared on his face after he said that. He was past the stage of mourning, and now tried to remember them fondly.

"So, someday I'll be as great a ninja as Mommy and Daddy?" the young girl questioned.

"Hai. Of course you'll be as great as our parents. Hell, you'll be better than them, un!" Deidara declared as he suddenly picked her up and placed her on his shoulders. The young girl shrieked with glee. This happy picture didn't happen as often as she liked.

"So, when I go to school today, you better practice, alright Gwen?" the seven year old demanded.

The little girl nodded, and when she realized that he couldn't see her, stated, "Hai. I'll practice until I can do it!"

Deidara laughed. "I doubt you'll get it that fast, so don't be disappointed, un."

x~x~x

Gwen scrunched up her face, concentrating deeply. The mouth on her hand worked quickly, until finally, it spat out a wad of clay that was in a perfect bird shape.

Her brother stared at her in shock. He had been taken out of school early on the Tsuchikage's order to watch. It seemed that she had somehow managed to do something that had taken a month for him to do.

The tiny figure of the Tsuchikage narrowed his eyes at the brunette girl. "How long have you been practicing this?" he demanded.

"Just today. I started this morning," Gwen answered.

The man looked at the ANBU that stood at his side. "Enroll her in the Academy. Put her in the advanced class with her brother."

"She's too young to start the Academy, un!" Deidara objected.

The Tsuchikage raised his eyebrow. "You are both wards of mine, which mean that whatever I say, as your legal guardian, goes. There is nothing you can do about it."

The blonde's fist clenched tightly, but he said nothing as he glared defiantly at the man. The Tsuchikage sighed.

"Don't think of doing anything. An ANBU operative will escort the both of you to school every day," the powerful man simply stated as he waved them out. "Now shoo, I have paperwork to do."

Deidara tried to calm his breathing as he and his little sister left the room. He couldn't seem to grasp the fact that they were making his four year old sister go to the Academy. The younger girl's bluish green eyes were on the ground, narrowed in thought.

_Why does Nii-san not want me in the Academy? I have a feeling that I need to know this. _She finally voiced her concerns. "Nii-san, why is it so bad that I'm going to the Academy early?"

Deidara ran a hand through his hair, mussing his hair and causing it to fall from his ponytail. "It's bad because you're not ready, un! No one is ready for the Academy at the age of four! Besides that, they're most likely gonna make you graduate early, un! Even if you don't, you'll graduate at ten, un!" he snapped, his tic becoming worse and worse.

"Oh," she whispered, slightly hurt, but now understanding why he was angry.

He sighed. "I'm sorry for yelling, un. I'm just really worried, Imouto."

"I know. I'm worried too," the girl whispered, feeling the need to be quiet.

Silent, he picked her up and sat her on his shoulders, cherishing the moment, knowing better than most that these peaceful times could end all too soon.

x~x~x

Gwen stared blankly at the school. Fearfully, she asked, "Do I really have to go, un?" She gained her brother's way of speech whenever she was nervous.

The ANBU smiled beneath his mask and nodded at the pouting girl. She was just standing in front of the school, and seemed to have no intentions of going inside. Her brother had already went to the training grounds attached to the school for extra practice.

"Yes, you have to go. We have over an hour for you to get used to the idea. If worse comes to worse, I can escort you the whole day during school," Ittan answered with a tiny smile tugging at his lips. She reminded him quite a bit of his own daughter, who would be joining the Academy next fall.

The brunette scowled fiercely at the school, but after ten minutes, straightened her back and stiffly walked in. Ittan followed her silently. His mission was to protect her, since she was not only a genius, but was one of the last of her clan. It was important to safeguard her. Most likely, she would never be able to complete missions outside of the village because of this.

"I'm really early, aren't I?" Gwen asked as she frowned at the empty seats surrounding her.

The ANBU silently sat down in the miniature desk, and nodded instead of answering. Puffing her cheeks and then letting out a breath, the young girl sat down beside him, already bored to tears. Her legs, too short to reach the floor, swung back and forth as she hummed a random melody under her breath, her fingers idly tapping out the beat on the shabby desk.

A glance outside the window revealed a single green eye that stared at her, but disappeared just as she was about to tell Ittan.

"ANBU-sempai, I think there was someone at the window," Gwen said.

"Most likely another officer. There's not going to be a break through this far into the village," he replied, attempting to relieve the girl, but not succeeding.

She scowled, but said nothing. Rarely did anyone have such green eyes in Iwa, and besides that, she wasn't wearing any sort of hunter-nin mask that she recognized. She could have already attacked them though if she were a threat. She already proved that she had capabilities far beyond most ANBU to be able to have sneaked into a hidden village and not get caught.

Gwen decided not to worry about the mysterious watcher as more and more kids filed into the classroom, her brother among them. The ANBU operative beside her received many strange and suspicious looks. Sitting beside him, she also gained many stares that she ignored easily. She had always been the freak.

The class went by quickly considering she already knew most of the stuff from being a bookworm. One of the strangest things was that her brother was in the exact same class as her. Though, she had also never been to school before, so the whole experience was weird to her.

Walking out, the ANBU waved as Deidara grabbed her hand and tugged her towards the training grounds. "Come on, un. We need to train," he muttered.

Gwen followed, and then asked, "Do you know of any blonde and green eyed ANBU members?"

The blonde boy shook his head, frowning. "Where did you see her, un?" he asked.

"She was at the school, looking through the window at me and ANBU-sempai. He didn't notice, and told me that it was nothing."

Deidara shrugged. "Not much we can do, un."

"I know, I know, but still," Gwen complained. "It just gets me so angry that nobody pays any attention to my warnings."

Deidara sighed and picked her up, carrying her on his shoulders. "Don't worry too much about it. Nobody outside our village knows that we're alive. And it's gonna stay that way, un."

x~x~x

Gwen stretched towards her toes, her eyes glazed with thought. She was trying to take everything she imagined about the mysterious woman and imprint it in her memory, when suddenly Deidara attacked her, pinning her to the ground.

Her brother sighed as he stood. "You need to work on your reflexes, and always be on alert. Considering who we are, you're gonna need to learn it quick, un. "

Gwen stood up also, and glared at her older brother. Then, she exploded. "You butthole! Don't scare me like that! I thought that you had gone psycho on me!"

The seven year old slowly began backing up, raising his hands defensively. "H-hey, I didn't think that it would scare you! I just wanted to prove that someone could attack you when you're lost in thought like that…"

Gwen sighed, letting go of her anger quickly. "Just don't do it again," she muttered.

Deidara rolled his eyes, sensing that the danger was over. "Sheesh, you're worse than Kaa-chan, un."

"Shut up."


	5. I Will Find it

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, sorry. Caitlin and the awesome plot are mine though.**

**Chapter 5: I Will Find It**

_"I am strong because I have people to protect."_

_~Uzumaki Naruto~_

Months passed, and rivals were made, along with new friends. Caitlin trained as often as she could with Gai-sensei, as she liked to call him now. Every so often, Kakashi would come and watch, or just sit there and pretend to read his perverted books. Naruto also sometimes trained with them too, but he was usually too busy pulling pranks.

One day, when Caitlin was still seven, she and Gai were training when a boy from the Academy, Uchiha Sasuke, and someone who looked suspiciously like him came towards them. She suspected that was his brother, the infamous Uchiha Itachi.

"Uchiha-san, what are you doing here with little Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi asked, placing his book in his back pocket.

Curious green eyes stared at both of the Uchiha as Itachi answered, "We are here to train, of course. The other training ground was taken, and Okaa-san made me promise to train my otouto."

"Ah, well, you're welcome to train here. I doubt Caitlin and Gai mind. Do you?" he asked as he turned towards them.

Caitlin shook her head as Gai answered, "Of course not! They are welcome to train the fieriness of their youth here along with Caitlin-chan and I anytime."

Sasuke looked slightly horrified when he said this, making Caitlin cover her smile as he tugged on his brother's hand and whispered, just loud enough for the others to hear him, "What is wrong with him?"

Caitlin's giggles couldn't be contained as she answered them, "There's nothing wrong with him. He just always talks like that."

"Oh," Sasuke said, blinking in surprise. "Are you a genin already? And is he your sensei?"

"No, I'm not a genin yet. I'd prefer to graduate with people my age," she giggled, "though I'm flattered that you thought I was. Gai-sensei is my sensei though, just in taijutsu. I actually used to really suck at it. Everybody would beat me at the Academy."

"Can I train with you, tomorrow? I really want someone to train with," Sasuke said, as he looked at them with pleading puppy dog eyes that worked amazingly on Gai.

"Of course, we would love to have an extra youthful training partner! And I could be your most youthful sensei!"

"Um," Sasuke said, "do I have to call him sensei?"

"No, Sasuke, you don't have to call Gai-san sensei," his older brother answered, a tiny smile on his face as he stared at his brother.

Gai pouted as Sasuke let out a breath he'd been holding in. "Thank goodness," he muttered.

X~x~x

This was how Caitlin's friendship with the Uchiha brothers started. Sasuke would train with them and Itachi would either help with his brother or would pick him up afterwards. When they were at school, though, it seemed as though Naruto had some sort of rivalry with teme, as Naruto called him.

Caitlin thought that it was hilarious, and soon came up with her own nickname for Sasuke, which was Duck Butt. He did not find it funny, but it made Itachi laugh the first time he heard it.

School was finally out for the day, Sasuke was just about to escape with his brother, when suddenly Caitlin shouted, "See ya, Duck Butt!"

Itachi let out a surprised chuckled as Sasuke glared at Caitlin. "I'm gonna kill you."

The two blondes looked at each other and then took off running with Sasuke at their heels. It was a nice day, and one of their last truly happy moments.

X~x~x

"Haruno Sakura, Hokage-sama wishes to see you," said the young messenger, a genin, Caitlin assumed, considering he didn't have the vest yet.

Iruka-sensei frowned. "Why would the Hokage wish to see Sakura-chan?"

"He mentioned something about specialized training because of her almost perfect chakra control. He plans on having her apprenticed to Tsunade of the Three Great Sannin."

Caitlin felt her heart constrict. She had admired Jiraiya of the Sannin because of his sealing abilities. She herself was already training in sealing. The best she could do so far was creating a sealing scroll. It would help her cut back on costs, at least. But still, what was so special about that girl? Caitlin knew she was being irrational, but this girl just had a dream of hers shoved right onto her lap and she didn't even seem excited!

Caitlin watched with sorrowfully and angry eyes as the pink haired girl left, and vowed to become as strong as she could, even if she didn't have a Sannin as her mentor!

x~x~x

The next day, she checked out two books from the library for shinobi on sealing, which caused the librarian to give her a strange look. Sealing was not a popular study in Konoha, but she had vowed to be the best she could be, so she would do it.

She read whenever she could, and this was how Itachi found her, a book in her lap after school as Naruto and Sasuke squabbled amongst themselves, and another about poisons and herbs beside her. A dictionary was also open in front of her, since she sometimes came across words that she couldn't figure out, though usually it was the math that got to her in the sealing rather than the vocabulary. The dictionary was used very often though when she read the book about poisons and herbs, though.

"Those are books on sealing. Not a popular choice," he remarked with a raised eyebrow as he watched the two boys, who were now wrestling each other to the ground.

Caitlin shrugged. "It will be useful to know. And besides, my idol is a master of fuuinjutsu."

"Your idol?" Itachi asked, smirking as Naruto started pulling Sasuke's hair.

"Yep. Jiraiya of the Sannin," she snickered. "They're fighting like two civilian girls."

"Yes, they are. I will have to tell Okaa-san about this, and then teach otouto not to fight like that."

"It does have its uses, though. An enemy nin would never expect their hair to be pulled like that suddenly. And besides, all's fair in love and war," Caitlin quoted.

"Have you ever thought about taking advanced classes?" Itachi asked, his eyes never leaving the two quarreling boys.

"Yes, but I quickly shot down the idea. I like being with Naruto, and I hope I'm in the same genin team as him," she said. Suddenly, the little girl frowned. "Hey, Itachi?"

"Hm?" he asked, finally glancing down at her.

"If something were to ever happen to me, like if I was killed on a mission, would you take care of Naruto for me?"

Itachi slowly blinked, not expecting that. "Yes. I expect you would watch over Sasuke then?"

"Course! Duck Butt is annoying sometimes, but still!" Caitlin answered, grinning at him. "Besides, you're too awesome to be taken down by an enemy ninja so easily."

"I'm glad you have such faith in me," Itachi replied, a tiny smile on his features as Sasuke, having won the fight, came towards them and grabbed his older brother's hand.

"Come on aniki. Let's leave this dobe," Sasuke said as he walked away, his brother walking beside him as Naruto huffed angrily on the ground.

"TEME!"

x~x~x

_We should have seen it coming, _Caitlin thought to herself. _I should have seen it coming!_

The night of the massacre, Caitlin couldn't sleep. She just had this horrible feeing in her gut that sang **wrong, Wrong, WRONG!** Something bad was going to happen. She didn't know where or to whom, but she still told Naruto.

"Meh, you worry too much, 'Lin-chan. It's nothing," Naruto told her after she had voiced her fears to him. She frowned, and decided to get out of bed.

"Hey, where are ya going?" Naruto asked, tilting his head curiously.

"To the memorial stone. I'm hoping that it will calm me down if I go there, and then maybe I'll be able to get some sleep," Caitlin answered, sighing.

"Well, don't stay out all night. And if you do, at least spend it training."

"Yeah, yeah, I will," she answered her best friend as she left their shared apartment to go to her place of solace and memorial of her second idol.

X~x~x

**Flashback**

"Bakashi, I know that this stone means a lot to you, but it's raining. You'll get sick."

"Have I ever told you about my genin team?" Kakashi asked tiredly.

Caitlin shook her head. Kakashi rarely talked about himself, but she had never really minded. She understood that sometimes the past should be brought up, but those times are rare. The past should stay where it belongs. _Like the dead._

She frowned sharply. _Where did that come from?_

"I'll tell you about Uchiha Obito, my teammate who taught me about being a team, and whose name is on this stone.

"He… he acted a lot like Naruto."

"Like the sun," Caitlin interrupted, a tiny smile on her face.

Kakashi smiled. "Yes. Exactly like that. We… we were on a mission, and our other teammate had gotten captured. Our sensei was gone, and I wanted to complete the mission, while Obito wished to save Rin. I lost my eye on that mission. I lost it when I finally decided to go and help save her.

"After the battle with the enemy nins, the cave collapsed. I was right under a falling rock, but he… he shoved me out of the way. He died there, but before he did, he gave me his eye. He said that it was a jounin present…"

Caitlin was crying by the end of the story, and for the rest of the day, they both sat before the stone, the rain falling down but neither caring.

**End Flashback**

x~x~x

Caitlin was surprised when she arrived at the stone to find Kakashi. "Hey, Bakashi. You do realize that it's nearly midnight, right?"

Kakashi didn't answer for a bit, but finally looked up after a while. "Maa, what are you doing here, lecturing me about the time when you're only eight and have school tomorrow?"

Caitlin shrugged, and was about to answer when suddenly, an ANBU operative appeared. "Hatake-san, you are needed at the Uchiha compound." The shinobi hesitated. "Uchiha Itachi just massacred his entire family, except for Uchiha Sasuke."

Caitlin felt as though she had been sucker punched to the chest. _Itachi…Massacre…No. !_

Caitlin didn't think; she just ran as fast as her legs could take her towards the Uchiha compound. She couldn't imagine what Sasuke was feeling right then. She was unsure of what _she_ was feeling right then. _Itachi… he wouldn't have… I don't understand!_

She could hear Kakashi shouting behind her, but she wasn't thinking straight. She doubted that she would ever think straight again. _How could someone that was so devoted to his brother do this?_

Then it hit her. _It has to be a misunderstanding. Itachi wouldn't have done this._

She felt Kakashi grab her. She whirled around towards him and said, "Itachi couldn't have done this. Maybe it was someone henged to look like him, but he didn't do this!"

"Caitlin, it was Itachi. He put Sasuke into a strong genjutsu that only could have been created by the Sharigan. I doubt another Uchiha would do something like this."

Caitlin glared at him. "It doesn't make any sense! Itachi isn't the type of person that would do that!"

"But he did, Caitlin," Kakashi reminded her gently.

"I'll find out the truth then!" Caitlin muttered to herself, refusing to believe something so horrible of her friend's brother. She grabbed Kakashi's sleeve and started dragging him to the Uchiha compound.

x~x~x

"Duck Butt," Caitlin murmured as she saw him sitting outside the gates of the compound. Kakashi had went around in, to attempt to track Itachi.

Sasuke said nothing, just continued to stare at the ground and shake. Caitlin looked at him worriedly as she asked the ANBU member that stood with them outside the compound gates, "Can I take him to my apartment? He can't stay in there, not after that."

The masked ninja hesitated, and finally nodded as Caitlin gently took Sasuke's arm and pulled him up. She silently led him towards her and Naruto's apartment. No words were exchanged between them because none were needed. The event that had occurred only hours before was too horrible to describe with simple _words_.

X~x~x

Naruto was still up when they arrived. He knew something was up when he saw that Caitlin was practically hugging Sasuke.

"Teme? Are you alright?"

"Naruto," Caitlin murmured quietly. "Sasuke's not okay. I don't know if he'll ever be okay."

Naruto looked frantic at Caitlin's declaration. "What happened?! What do you mean, you don't know if he'll ever be okay?!"

Caitlin bit her lip, not sure how to tell her best friend what had happened. "Itachi… He killed all of Sasuke's family, except for Sasuke…"

"What?! But teme's brother, he loved teme! He was an awesome ninja! He wouldn't have done something like that!" Naruto shouted.

"Shut up, dobe," Sasuke muttered, causing Caitlin to sigh in relief as she realized that he was finally talking.

Caitlin suddenly wrapped her arms around Naruto. "I'm sleepy," she said as she snuggled her surrogate brother. Naruto rolled his eyes as Caitlin reached out and grabbed Sasuke, forcing him into a group hug.

"Let's go to bed, then," Naruto said. The blonde girl reluctantly let go of both of them and flopped onto the bed.

Sasuke grumbled irritably to himself when he realized that all of them were going to have to squeeze onto the tiny bed. Naruto snickered at his reluctance.

They were all asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

x~x~x

Morning found them all skipping school, sleeping in. Because of what had happened the day before, Sasuke had been roped into sleeping in between Naruto and Caitlin, and awoke to a mouthful of blonde hair, which belonged to Caitlin who liked to cuddle. Naruto lay sprawled out across the bed, taking up as much room as he could.

Sasuke pulled the hair out of his mouth, disgusted. Caitlin grumbled in her sleep as he moved her hair and Naruto just continued snoring. Sasuke gave up his poor attempt to get out of bed when Caitlin just gripped him tighter when he tried to sit up.

An hour later, Caitlin finally woke up. Sasuke was slightly annoyed with her, but then she informed him that she wouldn't give him any food if he kept on being mean. She would have still given him food, but he didn't know that, and she was willing to take full advantage of that.

The group of friends missed the rest of the week of school, but didn't really care. Caitlin brought up Itachi only once, and it was to mention how unbelievable the whole thing was. Sasuke didn't talk to her for the rest of the day, so she didn't bring it up again.

Sasuke caught Caitlin and Naruto discussing the massacre three days after it had occurred.

"Naruto… I don't think that Itachi did it. Or if he did, there was a reason for it."

Naruto scratched his head, and asked, "Well, what do you think could have happened?"

Caitlin frowned as she thought about it. "Henge. Mind control. They could have put a genjutsu on Sasuke to make them think that it was Itachi. Um… Those are all I can think of at the moment, but I _know_ Itachi wouldn't have done something like that."

Naruto nodded his head, "All valid explanations. But Caitlin… the night of the massacre, you knew something was going to happen. I think you might have some sorta Kekkei Genkai."

She shook her head. "No, I don't think I have one of those. It was probably just regular intuition."

Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto said, "If you say so."

Their conversation made Sasuke think: What if it wasn't really Itachi's fault? If Caitlin had known something like that, then who's to say that she isn't right about the massacre?

He knew that Caitlin wanted to talk to him about the massacre, but he just couldn't. There were too many painful memories. It may make his friends worry, but he was going to do this his way.

He would find the truth.


	6. Blonde and Orange

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Megan is nightheart777's and plot is mine, though.**

**Chapter 6: Blonde and Orange**

_"It is only through the eyes of others that our lives have any meaning."_

_~Haku~ _

Megan stared at Hidan's still body. _OMG, he's dead!_

**Idiot! **snarled the Juubi. **He's immortal. Do I have to spell it out for you? I-M-M-O-**

_Shut up! I get it. I just had a blonde moment!_

"Megan, what the fuck are you doing?" demanded Hidan from his place on the floor.

Yes, Hidan had finally joined. Kakazu had went through so many partners that it was ridiculous, and probably wished that Hidan wasn't his partner. They had a strange dynamic. She couldn't decide whether they were the best of friends or the worst of enemies.

Itachi had also joined, which meant the massacre had occurred. Megan knew that there was nothing she could have done about it, but it was still a crippling blow to realize that so many were dead because of Obito. She knew that many more deaths were to come, but… _I will stop them from happening._

The Juubi chuckled. **You cannot stop them all even if you had all the power in the world.**

Megan's fist clenched at the thought just as arms wrapped around her in a hug from behind.

"Hi, Megan-chan! Can Tobi and Megan-chan go play with Hidan-sempai?" Tobi demanded as he tried to peer over Megan's shoulder.

"Err, we can't right now. Hidan's in the middle of something. Oh, that reminds me! Tomorrow, you're making me a Jashinist! Though technically I already am, you have to teach me how to get that awesome immortality!" Megan said, grinning at the other Jashinist.

"Alright. Now go, I have to give Jashin-sama a sacrifice now, and I don't want Lollipop over there screaming."

"Gotcha," Megan answered with a thumbs up as she then pulled Tobi away.

"So, are we gonna go prank Kakazu now?" Megan demanded.

"Yep!" Tobi chirped as they skipped cheerfully towards Kakazu's room, where they then proceeded to put bright orange dye into his shampoo.

"Think he'll notice?" Megan asked.

"Nope. At least not until it's too late!" Tobi replied back.

"What are you two talking about?" asked Kisame as he turned a corner towards them, following Itachi.

"An elaborate prank, most likely," Itachi replied.

"Tobi and Megan-chan's pranks aren't that elaborate," Tobi said. "Though, Tobi will take the praise."

"Hey! I'm the one that comes up with elaborate schemes. You come up with simple things to do in between my awesome pranks," Megan countered, grinning from ear to ear.

"Okay, Megan-chan! Can we go dye all of Deidara's underwear pink now?"

"We're also giving him Konan's bras, remember? Next Christmas, though. We can't do it now. Poo," Megan replied as she pouted at the thought of the wait.

"Yeah, poo," Tobi agreed, probably pouting behind his mask too.

x~x~x

Everyone stared at Kakazu as he walked into the dining room for lunch. Hidan burst into laughter and didn't stop until one of Kakazu's threads beheaded him.

"Hey! Asshole, put my head back!" Hidan shouted. Kakazu just calmly walked up to the table, kicking the head out of the way as he went.

Kakazu's voice was low, but it didn't need to be loud to show the menace in it. "Who did this?"

Tobi and Megan exchanged glances, and at the same time screamed, "RUN!" and took off down the hall of the base.

Pain stared as the orange haired Kakazu ran past him after Megan and Tobi. "Kakazu?" Pain asked, causing said man to pause and turn towards the other orange haired man.

"Yes, Leader-sama?" Kakazu said.

"I like your new look. Oh, and when you catch Megan, tell her she has an assassination mission in Fire country. Give her these to read over," Pain stated as he turned back towards the dining room and entered to eat breakfast.

x~x~x

Megan stared at the blonde girl that was on the Hokage monument along with Itachi's brother, and Kurama's Jinchuriki. She had already finished her assassination mission, and had decided to see if she could find Bobby, her sister, or her father. It seemed she had found another one of them, at least. She had found Gwen years ago, and was constantly checking up on her. She had a horrible habit of getting into terrible situations.

Megan doubted Caitlin remember anything, staring at her. She looked too carefree to know what was coming up ahead. Besides, she doubted her sister would waste her time on silly pranks when she should be training, or planning what she would do when the war occurred. Her sister was a worry-wart like that.

The Juubi snorted in her head. **Hypocrite. You are also a worrier, though you show it less than your sister used to. Besides, should it come down to it, I will tell you my own plan that I came up with should yours fail or should you fail to even come up with a plan. Do not be surprised when I attempt to nudge you in the right direction.**

_Remind me, why are you doing this? _Megan demanded.

**I am doing this because if their world comes to be, my power will mean nothing. Oh, and I also don't want to be trapped inside of a psycho or trapped in a statue. So, I will choose the lesser evil of a love sick girl. **Megan imagined that if she could see the Juubi right then, he would have shuddered.

_Shut up. _

x~x~x

The sounds of a battle were heard, and Megan stared at the spectacle before her. Her contractor was near here, which was the only reason why she was here, of all places.

_What the hell?!_


	7. Snakes and Toads

**Disclaimer: Yet again, I don't own Naruto. Plot is mine and Bobby is my cousin's, ANBU33! Mwhahaha!**

**Chapter 7: Snakes and Toads**

_"I'm not just a pervert... I'M A MEGA PERVERT!"_

_~Jiraiya~_

Bobby stared at the man that stood in their way.

"You have got to be kidding me," his mother muttered.

The blonde shinobi, who still hadn't bothered to introduce himself, stepped forward. "Orochimaru."

"Ah, yes. So you're Hemlox. How fun. Do you wish to play, little leaf nin?!" snarled the snake man as his tongue shot towards Hemlox.

"Get back!" Hemlox snapped as he unsheathed his katana, lashing towards the strange appendage flying towards him, but missing. The danger of losing his tongue seemed to discourage the snake-man, so it was retracted back into his mouth.

"Hehe…" Orochimaru snickered as two snakes slithered from his sleeves, but were quickly slain by the blonde man's sword.

"Summoning jutsu," the snake said, after forming many blurring hand signs, and bit his thumb and put it to the ground.

"Shit!" Bobby's mother cursed as she grabbed him and pulled him away from the fight, where a giant snake had appeared with a poof of smoke, and would have crushed them had they stayed in that area.

The snake's maw suddenly surrounded Hemlox, and swallowed him. Bobby stared with shock at the area where their protector had been before…

Coming up behind the snake man, Hemlox stabbed him, appearing seemingly out of thin air to Bobby's untrained eyes.

Orochimaru's body melted almost, turning into many white snakes that moved as one away from the other shinobi, reforming as soon as they were an acceptable distance from Hemlox. He reached into his mouth, which caused Bobby's own mouth to gape with shock as he pulled a sword from it.

The sword then _moved on its own_ towards Hemlox, who wasn't expecting that to occur. He was cut slightly on his arm, just a sliver of red on the man's skin. Had he not dodged, the sword would have taken his arm off.

The next time the sword came towards him, he was prepared, and managed to dodge the blow. Bobby quickly stopped paying attention to that particular battle when he suddenly heard some shout in a voice that he didn't recognize.

"If you think giant snakes are cool, watch this!"

With another poof of smoke, a giant toad appeared which then engaged combat with the snake summon. A silver haired man stood on the toad head, who Bobby assumed was the one that had been talking before.

Bobby stared with shock as the old man and his summon both seemed to shoot flame at the snake, who screamed as the fire seared his eyes, effectively blinding him.

"Where's Orochimaru?" Hemlox demanded, looking at the snake head but failing to find the man.

They heard a chuckle, and then Bobby's mother was grabbed by smaller snakes that the man had created, who had somehow appeared out of the tree that they were standing on.

Suddenly, the snake man's head was nearly kicked in by a blonde woman who wore a strange cloak patterned with red clouds.

The silver haired man was staring openly at the girl, not even realizing that his summon had killed the snake. "Akatsuki," he muttered.

"Yo," said the woman grinning at them all. The blonde man had frozen too, but he wasn't looking at her cloak, but her face.

"I have a strange feeling that shit's about to hit the fan," Bobby muttered, as he helped his mother pull the snakes off of her.

The mysterious woman grinned behind her mask, or at least Bobby assumed she did. "Oh, yes it is."

"Megan," Orochimaru purred. "You wouldn't hurt an old teammate, would you? Besides, if I remember correctly, you are more blood thirsty than even Hidan, yes?"

The woman laughed. "Doesn't matter how blood thirsty I am. I would rather kill you than anyone else here, you monster."

He tried to catch her eye, but with light glinting sharply off of her scythe blade that was rushing towards him, he hurriedly dissolved into the tree instead of attacking her with genjutsu. To Bobby's eyes, it looked as though he walked straight through the tree, tempting the child to look at the other side to see if he was there.

"Damn it!" the blonde woman snarled, punching the tree so hard that you could see an indentation of her fist in it.

_She didn't use chakra! _Bobby thought, awed. _To have that kind of strength!_

"One of these days, I'm gonna kill that snake," she muttered, practically ignoring the others.

The silver haired man looked very unsure to Bobby, staring at the blonde woman, debating something inside his head. "You're Akatsuki," he finally blurted out.

"Yep," she shrugged. "And you're Jiraiya of the Three Sanin, and we just fought Orochimaru together. What, were you expecting me to attack you or something?"

"Yeah," Jiraiya answered truthfully.

She snorted. "Nah. Though I do have to go now. Catch ya later!" she shouted as she used the body flicker technique to go to who-knows-where.

Hemlox opened his mouth and then closed it, deciding not to say what was on his mind. "That was probably the strangest meeting of my life," he finally said.

"That, I will agree with," his mother said. "What is 'Akatsuki' anyway? Not good, from what I've gathered."

"No, definitely not good. I can't tell you the rest but let's all hope that we don't encounter a more violent one," Jiraiya answered.

Hemlox stepped forward, and then said, "Jiraiya, I need you to take care of these two for me. As you can see, they have a tendency to run into trouble with their arms wide open."

Jiraiya frowned. "I don't know, Dy- Hemlox. It sounds like a bad idea. Besides, I can't take care of them. I have things to do, and you know it!"

Hemlox took the other man to the side, and seemed to start a quiet argument with him. Finally, they came back. Jiraiya's face held begrudging acceptance, and it was obvious who had won the argument.

Hemlox nodded at Jiraiya. "I have to leave now. I have to check up on my teammates."

"What did you do to your teammates this time?" Jiraiya demanded, exasperated.

"Well…" Hemlox started but then paused as Jiraiya held up his hand.

"You know what? I don't wanna know."

x~x~x

Bobby's mother face palmed the first time they went to a hot spring with Jiraiya. It seemed, he was a 'mega pervert'. She quickly dragged her son away, who had been watching the older man curiously.

Jiraiya was still snickering and muttering something about research as they left. Bobby's mother sighed as she realized that she was not going to be able to use the hot spring unless…

The woman paused, and asked, "Bobby, can you distract Jiraiya while I go to the hot springs?"

Bobby nodded. "Sure."

As his mother left to prepare for the hot springs, Bobby ran over to Jiraiya. "I'm bored," the boy stated as he tugged on the older man's shirt. "Can you teach me an awesome jutsu?"

"No."

Bobby frowned. "Why not?"

"You're not ready yet. Besides, I have no idea what your skills are or what your chakra nature is," the man replied. "Oh, and I'm also researching, but you already knew that." The man grinned at him.

"Please train me! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Please! Ple-"

"Shut up already! Alright, I'll train you. Just shut up, okay?" Jiraiya shouted, thoroughly annoyed.

Bobby perked up. "Yay!"

"What did I just agree to?" Jiraiya murmured to himself.

x~x~x

"It seems your mother has taught you quite a bit of the basics, so let's skip to see what you chakra nature is," Jiraiya said, as he handed a piece of chakra paper to the boy.

Jiraiya watched as the paper was ripped to pieces, signaling that the child had wind chakra. Jiraiya frowned, thinking of a jutsu that Bobby's mother would approve of._ But first…_

"Here ya go, kid. Come to me when you can cut it in half in a single try," Jiraiya said as he walked towards the hot springs, intent on more 'research'.

Bobby was desperate now. He didn't want Jiraiya to peep on his mother, so he said the first thing that came to his mind. "What are you doing research for?"

Jiraiya gaped at the boy, obviously not expecting him to ask, thinking he already knew. "My books, of course! Have you never heard of Icha Icha Paradise?"

It was Bobby's turn to gape in shock. "N-no. My mother told me to never read those books because they're porn."

"They are not porn! They are moving novels about life, love, and-" Jiraiya started but then was interrupted by a very angry mother's voice.

"You are not corrupting my baby boy with porn!"


	8. Demons and Shadows

**Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine, though the plot is. Narufan0001 owns Gwen.**

**Chapter 8: Demons and Shadows**

_"__Every single one of us has a fanged beast hidden within the depths of our minds. It lies there, waiting in the dark reaches of a person's soul and it appears in our lowest moments. It doesn't matter how strong you think you are. When the beast comes, it is impossible to control. It can even end up hurting those who are closest to you. But if the monster can be tamed, reigned in with the strength of your will, it can become a magnificent power… And can even make your dreams reality."_

_~Yuuhi Kurenai~_

"MY SISTER IS NOT GOING ON A TRAINING MISSION WITH SOME ANBU THAT I BARELY KNOW!"

Gwen winced at the loud voice. Onoki and Deidara were having yet another fight, but it was starting to become the norm. Ittan sat outside the office with her, reading a bright orange book.

"How long do you think this is going to take?" Gwen asked, bored.

"No idea. Tsuchikage-sama can yell at someone for hours, so…" the ANBU officer trailed off as the kage's voice started yelling.

"I DON'T CARE! HE CAN PROTECT HER! I TRUST HIM TO PROTECT ME, SO HE CAN EASILY PROTECT SOME LITTLE GIRL!"

Gwen twitched. "Did he just call me little?"

Ittan almost wanted to laugh. It seemed that the little four year old had a temper on her just like her brother. "Yes, yes he did."

She growled under her breath and then stalked towards the door, slamming it open in the process. The two heads inside whipped towards her.

"NOT NOW!" they both screamed in unison, causing them to again start yelling at each other.

"STOP COPYING ME, YOU OLD GEEZER!"

"I AM NOT OLD, YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

Ittan hummed, almost cheerful. "You know, they throw horribly clichéd insults at each other."

"Yeah, they do. It's almost like Tsuchikage-sama is a child too," Gwen replied, sighing as she realized that the two weren't even paying attention to them.

"He practically is," Ittan agreed easily as he swept the mission folder off the desk, Gwen following him out the door.

"When do you think they'll notice?" Gwen asked as they quickly walked out of the building.

"Tsuchikage-sama noticed immediately, but I doubt Deidara-kun will for a couple of hours," the brunette answered.

"So, what are we doing?" the small girl asked.

"We're going out to the forest to see how much destruction you can cause," Ittan answered, smiling slightly beneath his mask.

Gwen smiled. "Awesome."

x~x~x

Laying on the forest ground, the exhausted girl smiled at the leaves above her. She was tired, so tired she could barely move, but she was proud of the damage she had done. She was actually laying in a small crater she had created using one of her explosives. It was about the size of a well done exploding tag, but she knew as she practiced, she would become better and better.

Ittan paused from his reading, frowning at the forest around them. He silently approached the sleepy girl, and putting a finger to his lips, handing her a kunai. The color in her tanned skin drained as she realized what was going on.

Maniacal laughter suddenly filled the clearing, the killer intent so strong that Gwen almost puked. The sound seemed to come from everywhere, making it impossible to locate the source.

Rapidly making hand signs, he stepped away from Gwen, whispering, "Earth Release: Rock Shelter."

A dome of earth rose above her, surprising her at its unexpectedness. She stiffly stood up, looking at the smooth wall. There was no way for her to get out.

"Oh, how funny," Gwen heard, "It seems that the Explosion Release Kekkei Genkei hasn't been wiped out. And here I thought that I'd never get a hold of it."

"You're still never going to get it," the ANBU snarled, subtly placing a hand on the dome. When it came away, there were two perfect eye holes for Gwen, who quickly took use of them. Peering out, she saw a very pale man that looked almost snake-like.

The man smirked. "Oh, but I already have," he sang out, just as Gwen felt scaly creatures wrapping around her body. Screaming with alarm, she barely noticed when the woman from before appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

Slicing through the snakes easily with her scythe, Megan caught the girl as she fainted, events from the day catching up with her. She sat the girl down, and then easily phased through the earth barrier.

Ittan looked so alarmed that it was almost comical, and she couldn't even see his face. Orochimaru himself had taken a step back, and then looked her straight in the eye.

_Shit! _Megan thought just as she was sucked into a genjutsu.

x~x~x

She was falling through darkness, with shadows that seemed to slither and crawl, whispering her worst fears and secrets in her ears.

Without a consciousness, the Juubi roared to life, with Megan's eye shooting open, the green now red. The snake took a large step back, shock briefly written on his face. Megan's face split into a bloodthirsty grin, and she leapt at the man, who barely got out of the way.

Ittan was slowly backing up, attempting not to be seen. The movement attracted the rabid Megan, who then lunged at him, deeming him a worthy target.

Megan, trapped in her own head, attempted to somehow get purchase in the shadowy depts. _Juubi? Where are you? Damn it, I need help!_

When she realized that no one was going to help her, she started to struggle against the strangling shadows. _Kai! Let me out! KAI!_

Finally staring through her own eyes, she realized that she had no control over her body. Trees had been knocked down, and destruction was everywhere. The ANBU was clutching his arm, which had a long jagged scratch running down it, and Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. She hoped Gwen was okay.

**Oh, so you finally escaped from the illusion.**

_Give me my body back, you asshole!_

The biju chuckled. **You'll have to fight to get it back!**

Invisible hands seemed to grasp at her throat, cutting off her air supply. Megan internally struggled, ripping into the hands with claws. _I want control! This is my body, NOT YOURS!_

Megan gasped suddenly of her own violation as the Juubi let go of control. **Oh well. It's only a matter of time.**

_You've waited for this all along?!_

**Of course. What, you really thought that I would be a docile little pet? NEVER!**

Megan belatedly realized that her arms were covered with scratches from her internal struggle with the ten-tails. Though they were already healing, they stung, causing her to quietly whimper. The ANBU was staring at her with shock, but at the moment she couldn't blame him. She probably looked terrible.

Fumbling with the seals, she teleported to the room in the Ame base, and stared at the wall blankly for about an hour before she forced herself to stand and look in the mirror.

Her eye wasn't red anymore, though she had never seen the change, she had felt it when her supposedly normal eye flooded with demonic chakra, causing it to turn a bright red. Her eye stripes were slightly more prominent, and looked more purple than blue at the moment, though they were still slowly turning back to normal. Her hair was also wilder, but she thought that it could have been the tussle that had caused that.

_Juubi?_

**What is it?**

Megan stared into her own eyes, wondering what to say. She felt betrayed. She had known that he was a demon, but it didn't stop her from feeling as though he were her friend.

_Why?_

**Power. It is what keeps this world turning, even though your pathetic human mind believes that it's love. Do you know what it's like to be trapped? It's the worst feeling you will ever have. Once you taste freedom, there is nothing compared to that feeling!**

_I'm sorry. If I could give you a chance at a real life, without having to worry about you killing everyone, I would give it to you. I don't know how, though._

**The Sage would. But you are not him, only a poor imitation that is half blinded with infatuation. **

_I know._

**And I am sorry.**


	9. A Team Called Seven

**A/N: I have guinea pig BABIES! They're so adorable. :) Please review!**

**Also, I've decided to update once a week. :)**

**Disclaimer: Why do I do this again? I don't own Naruto, but 'Lin-chan and the plot are mine.**

**Chapter 9: A Team Called Seven**

_"Sorry I'm late. I got lost on the road of life."_

_~Hatake Kakashi~_

"When are we gonna be finished with desecrating the monuments?" Caitlin asked as she, Sasuke, and Naruto hung from a rope atop the Hokage monument.

"In just a sec, 'Lin-chan!" Naruto shouted back from the face that he was drawing all over.

Suddenly, their teacher, Iruka started shouting at them. "What do you think you're doing, you idiots! Get down from there and get back to class, all of you!"

They all got down, both Caitlin and Naruto pouting. Sasuke just looked smug, 'I-told-you-so' written all over his face. Both of the blondes had perfected the art of understanding Sasuke. It may have taken years, but they had accomplished it.

When they arrived at the Academy, Iruka-sensei tied them up so the three wouldn't escape, and then proceeded to lecture them about the fact that the exams were tomorrow and they needed to be prepared, blah, blah, blah. They then were made to practice transforming, which ended with Naruto using the taboo jutsu, as Caitlin called it. After class, Iruka-sensei made them clean the monument, which caused Naruto to complain the whole time.

Iruka took the three for ramen after they finished. He mostly talked to Naruto at first since he knew that Sasuke and Caitlin had been roped in. Naruto finished their conversation by asking, "Your headband, can I wear it?"

Iruka told him after that that you can only get it when you graduate, which made Caitlin worry. She knew that Naruto sucked at genjutsu. It was why she had started studying it at the age of nine. She knew that it was something that Naruto would have trouble at, and she had tried everything to help him with it. Nothing worked. He just wasn't a genjutsu type, which was all there was to it, not to mention his massive chakra reserves... She didn't know what would be on the test, but if it was genjutsu…

x~x~x

The next day, they were all up bright and early for the exam. Caitlin was reviewing with Naruto when she realized the time, and that Sasuke had already left.

"Gah! We're gonna be late! And Duck Butt didn't tell us! I'm gonna kick his ass!" Caitlin shouted as she stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth and grabbed Naruto, rushing out the door. Because of their training with Gai-sensei, all three were faster than the regular chunin, but none of them reveal it.

They arrived in a few minutes, on time. Caitlin was still considering killing Sasuke, but she decided there were too many witnesses. _I'll get you next time, Duck Butt!_

x~x~x

Caitlin tried to find Naruto after the test later that night, but soon realized that he was nowhere to be found. She tried Sasuke's house, and when realizing that Naruto was not there, she decided to check and see if Sasuke knew where their blonde friend was.

"Duck Butt, I can't find Naruto. Have you seen him?" Caitlin asked Sasuke, who usually stayed with them now, though they had to buy most of the floor they lived in of the apartment complex.

Sasuke shook his head, silent, though a frown marred his face, revealing his worry.

"Let's go find him."

x~x~x

Caitlin and Sasuke both were exasperated at Naruto when he finished his story. "Seriously Naruto, you're way too trusting. He told you to STEAL a scroll, and you still did it!" Caitlin ranted.

"Yeah, but it turned out okay in the end. Iruka-sensei is okay and I learned a cool jutsu!" Naruto said, a wide grin on his face. "Oh, and I graduated too! Can you paint my face up for photos tomorrow?"

Caitlin sighed. "Sure."

x~x~x

Caitlin watched, giggling as Naruto and Sasuke fought. Naruto had jumped up on the desk in front of Sasuke and they were now having a staring match. Caitlin's mouth gaped open as the kid in front of Naruto accidently nudged him, causing the shinobi to kiss.

Caitlin burst into laughter as Naruto started wiping his mouth on his shirt and Sasuke started coughing violently. She literally fell to the ground in her laughter as her two best friends moved to opposite sides of the room. She then sat next to one of her other best friends, Hinata, since she wasn't about to choose from one of the boys.

"Who d-do you think y-you'll end up p-partnered with?" Hinata asked.

"Hopefully Naruto and Sasuke. We work together best, and I would be disappointed if ended up with some idiot or fan girl/boy," Caitlin replied. "I'd be happy to end up with you or Shino too, but…"

"I understand," Hinata replied, a smile on her face. "T-They'd be l-lost without you."

"I hope not," Caitlin muttered as they started calling out teams. She listened attentively, until finally Iruka called out, "Caitlin… Uzumaki Naruto… And… Uchiha Sasuke."

A grin threatened to tear Caitlin's face in half as Sasuke smirked and Naruto started jumping up and down.

There were a couple more cells made, and then the sensei's started to show up. Soon enough, Team Seven was the only team left waiting for their sensei.

Naruto was restless, constantly in motion. Sasuke sat with his hands folded before his face, obviously deep in thought while Caitlin sat on top of the desk, reading a book. Naruto finally stopped his pacing and grabbed an eraser which he posed over the door. Caitlin looked up with a raised eyebrow, but didn't comment.

Caitlin was taking an educated guess in this, but the ridiculous lateness made her assume that her sensei was Kakashi. He had been late every time the boys begged him to train them. So, obviously he would be late to this, and to get back at his constant lateness Caitlin decided that she would let Naruto follow through with his prank.

When he saw the prank, Sasuke just sighed and said, "I doubt he's going to fall for that, Naruto."

Naruto pouted, but sat by the door and waited. And waited. And waited.

Finally, Kakashi, their new sensei, entered, in a cloud of dust that was caused by the eraser. Naruto burst into laughter, holding his stomach while Caitlin rolled her eyes at his antics.

Kakashi sighed, and then they all went to the roof, where Kakashi proceeded to tell them about himself, which reveal nothing about him, but they already knew him pretty well, so it didn't matter much.

"Why do we have to do this?" Naruto demanded, frowning.

"Just get it over with," Sasuke muttered, a scowl fixed firmly in place.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like instant cup ramen, but I like it better when Iruka-sensei treats me to ramen at Ichiraku! I also like my teammates, teme and Caitlin! I hate the three minute wait after I pour in the boiling water. My dream is to someday be a better shinobi than the Hokage and then all the villagers will have to acknowledge my existence at last! My hobbies are pranking and practical jokes. Oh! And training with you guys," Naruto stated, a grin fixed firmly on his face.

Next was Sasuke. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are plenty of things I hate, but I don't see that it matters, considering some of the few things that I like are the dobe and Caitlin. I will not talk about my dreams, but I do have an ambition, which is to find the truth about that day."

Now, it was Caitlin's turn. "My name is Caitlin. I'm an orphan, so I don't have a surname. I like my teammates, the color green, books, and crab meat. I dislike most idiots, people who are constantly late, green jumpsuits with orange leg warmers, and the color pink. My dream is to protect the people I love and help them achieve their dreams. My hobbies are reading, learning, training, writing, and annoying Bakashi-sensei."

Kakashi nodded. "I think we all understand each other. Real training begins tomorrow."

"You're not training us now because it's too early in the day, Bakashi-sensei," Caitlin said, joking. She and the other knew the truth by now, so she wasn't truly going to get on his case about his lateness.

Before Kakashi left, he told them that there was a 66% failure rate, which Caitlin didn't believe because she had read everywhere on this. There wasn't a test like that that had such a percentage of failures. Or at least, not from what she had read. But she knew sensei's could give test and if they failed, were sent to the Academy. She didn't tell the boys until he left, which majorly relieved Naruto, who didn't want to go back to the Academy. She left out the part about it maybe being correct, just because she believed in her team, and if there was such a test, they would pass it.

x~x~x

Naruto's stomach growled from where he was tied up. The three had failed Kakashi's test. The boys had just refused to work together, even though Caitlin had practically begged them to be a team, and that they could have the bells and she would go back.

Of course, they didn't listen, and now the teammates were in this predicament. Caitlin and Sasuke were allowed to eat, while a hungry Naruto had to watch. Caitlin finally just thought, _screw it,_ and gave the rest of her food to the other blonde. If she passed once, she could easily pass again.

"Don't give him all your food. He can have some of mine too, so we can all eat," Sasuke said as he helped her untie Naruto.

Suddenly, Kakashi appeared in a poof of smoke, which cause Caitlin to yelp in surprise and Naruto to jump back as Sasuke held his ground.

"You pass," Kakashi stated, giving them his strange eye smile.

x~x~x

Team Seven had been doing D-Rank missions since then, and they were all tired of chasing that crazy cat. Naruto was the most vocal about it however, and demanded a C-Rank mission from the Hokage.

"Team Seven, your next mission is-"

"NO, NO, NO, no thank you!" Naruto shouted with his arms crossed in a X. "I want an awesome mission! Find us a better one!"

"Preferably a not D-Rank," Caitlin interjected.

After that, the Hokage explained the mission ranks to the genin, and the ranks of the people inside of the village that were ninjas. Caitlin understood, but it didn't mean she liked it. She had to pinch Naruto to make sure he listened to the Hokage, and because she was fair, she pinched Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei too. They were both expecting it, so neither flinched.

Naruto was still rubbing his arm when the Hokage agreed to let them have a C-Rank. Naruto jumped for joy, shouting at the top of his lungs while the rest of them rubbed their ears.

Of course, this changed as soon as they saw their client. Caitlin tried to ignore him, but nearly had a temper tantrum like Naruto by the time they were at the gates.

Caitlin stared at the gate with awe. Both she and Naruto had never been out of the village, so this was all new to them. Caitlin ignored Naruto and the bridge builder's argument to ask Sasuke, "What's it like outside of the village?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Not very different from inside. In other villages in Fire country, there are less ninja. I've never been to Wave, so I can't tell you anything that your books can't."

"Hey, Caitlin?" Naruto said.

"Hmm?"

"Do they have ninjas in other countries?" Naruto asked.

Caitlin smiled. "Yes, they do. In Wave, they don't have a Hidden Village, so there are no ninjas. In other countries, like Iwa or Kiri, there are Hidden Villages, so they have ninjas."

Kakashi suddenly took out a scroll that had the five shinobi countries marked and started elaborating on Caitlin's explanation. The boys both listened attentively, not wanting to be pinched again. Besides, Naruto was actually curious about this.

Caitlin paused when she noticed a puddle. _What the heck? It's dry as a desert out here yet there's a puddle? That can't be right…_

Just as she was about to say something about it, two ninjas appeared out of the puddle. She stared with horror as they wrapped a chain around Kakashi, and ripped him to pieces. _Sensei… He couldn't be! _Then she noticed that there wasn't a body, but logs. She was so relieved she could have laughed, had there not been enemy ninjas and a job to do.

She jumped in front of Tazuna, trusting Sasuke to help Naruto, who had frozen when he saw Kakashi go down. Sasuke's shurikens sliced through the wind after he threw them and caught the chains on trees. Sasuke himself soared through the air, and then he jumped on the ninjas' heads, kicking them in the face in the process and grabbing their gloves.

The chains suddenly snapped off the gloves, and the nin ran at Naruto, the sharp fingers of the glove extended towards him. The other ninja ran at Caitlin and Tazuna. Caitlin stood in front of the man, her scythe out of her summoning scroll, and slicing through the air towards the ninja.

Caitlin's strike had sliced the ninja's glove, but nothing more as Kakashi finally arrived back on the scene, holding both the ninjas in place from behind.

As Kakashi apologized for being late, Caitlin ran towards Naruto. "Naruto, are you alright?"

Naruto blinked slowly, and then nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Your hand, dobe." Sasuke said, pointed towards the injured appendage.

"Their claws are soaked in poison. We have to remove it quickly," Kakashi muttered. "We must open the wound and remove the poison from your body. Don't move much; the poison will spread." Kakashi paused. "Tazuna-san?"

"What is it?" the bridge builder nervously demanded.

"I need to talk to you. These look like Hidden Mist chunin. They are known to continue fighting no matter what," Kakashi said.

"I thought we weren't supposed to encounter other ninjas on a C-Rank mission," Caitlin murmured as they surrounded the now bound enemy nins.

"We weren't. With ninjas attacking us, this at least boost it up to a B-Rank. This was supposed to be a simple protection mission," Kakashi replied.

"Naruto's wound… we need to get him to a medic…" Caitlin said, frowning. "I don't know what poison it is…"

"This mission might be too much…" Kakashi muttered. "I guess we should return to the village to get treatment for Naruto…"

Naruto snapped. Caitlin watched with horror as he suddenly stabbed his hand with a glinting kunai in an attempt to remove the poison.

"With this kunai," Naruto declared, "I'll protect the old man. We're continuing the mission!"


	10. Truth or Dare?

**Disclaimer: I only own the plot; Megan belongs to my sister and I definitely don't own Naruto.**

**Chapter 10: Truth or Dare?**

_"Go away. You don't interest me at the moment."_

_~Uchiha Itachi~_

"Hey, hot stuff!" Megan called to Kisame, and then proceeded to trip over her own feet and land in his lap. Megan turned bright red, but true to her impulses, grinned and acted like it was supposed to happen. She wriggled her eyebrows at the shark-man, face devoid of her usual mask.

Kisame burst into laughter just as Tobi came in, and caused Megan to freeze. Tobi himself paused, but then turned back to his normal cheerful self.

The Juubi chuckled. **He is jealous, it seems.**

Megan was still frozen in place when Pain's voice sounded in her head. **"Akatsuki, gather in the living area."**

When they were all there, Konan came forward and announced, "We are all going to play Truth or Dare. Many of us have been bored since there haven't been many missions lately and I'm hoping this will keep the base from being destroyed. So, we are _all _playing."

They all sat down in a circle (except for Zetsu, who was doing espionage) and Pain started by spinning the bottle. It landed on Konan. "Truth or dare?" Pain asked.

Konan thought about it, and then said, "Truth."

"What's your favorite color?" Pain asked.

Hidan exploded. "You damn pussies. What the fuck kind of question is that?"

Pain rose up, a dark look in his eyes. "What did you say? I believe I heard you wrong."

Megan recognized that this was about to get bad, really fast. She covered Hidan's mouth and then grinned at Tobi, who was sitting to Pain's left. "It's your turn, Tobi," she said as Pain choose to leave to do leader-y things.

Tobi spun the bottle and landed on Kisame. "Truth or dare, Kisame-senpai?" Tobi chirped.

Kisame smirked. "Dare."

Tobi hummed and then said, "Tobi dares Kisame-sempai to kiss Deidara-sempai's hand."

Now, Deidara exploded. Not literally, of course. "Shark-boy is not molesting my hand!"

"Don't be a 'pussy' as Hidan said, Deidara. It is just a dare," Sasori said, watching, bored, with his hand propping up his head.

Kisame looked like he was going to be sick, but he leaned forward and kissed Deidara's hand. He then ran off to the kitchen to wash his mouth out with soap.

Megan was on the floor laughing as Tobi handed her the bottle. She spun it, and then grinned evilly when it landed on Itachi. "Hmm… Truth or dare, Itachi?"

"Dare," Itachi answered, his face blank.

If possible, Megan's smirk became even eviler. She leaned forward and whispered in the Uchiha's ear what his dare was. He then left, to presumably finish the dare.

"He might be a while," Megan said, as she passed the bottle to Deidara.

"What did you dare him to do?" Kakuzu asked, his hair still slightly orange from Megan's last prank.

"You'll see," Megan practically sang as Deidara spun the bottle.

The blonde man grinned gleefully when it landed on Tobi. "Truth or dare?"

"Tobi picks truth," the masked man replied.

"Seriously? That's a pussy choose," Hidan muttered. He was ignored.

"Alright then. What's under that mask of yours?" Deidara demanded, thinking that he had got Tobi.

"A face," Tobi answered.

"SERIOUSLY! THAT'S NOT A REAL ANSWER YOU ASSHOLE!" Deidara shouted as he lunged at Tobi. Sasori sighed as he restrained the blonde with his puppet strings. With the hand that was not being used to stop Deidara, he spun the bottle, which landed on Hidan.

"Truth or dare?" the puppeteer asked.

"Dare, of course, you dumbass Pinocchio," Hidan replied, smirking.

"I dare you to go a week without performing one of your sacrificial rituals."

Hidan paled with horror. He wasn't going to back down, but it was obvious that he hated the dare. **It seems he's getting a little of his own medicine, **the Juubi purred.

Hidan now had to spin the bottle, which landed on Tobi. Again. "Truth or dare, Lollipop?" Hidan asked, starting to smirk again.

"This time Tobi chooses dare."

"I dare you to…" Hidan trailed off as he thought about it.

"Make him take his mask off!" Deidara shouted.

Megan snorted. _As Bobby said, 'shit's about to hit the fan'._

"Yeah, take your fucking mask off," Hidan dared, his smirk now back at the thought of tormenting one of the banes of his existence.

"Okay. Tobi will take his mask off." As the man did, Megan realized that he had cast a genjutsu so that they couldn't see his real face. Deidara may have thought that his scope could see through genjutsu, but without it, which he was, meant nothing. Itachi also wasn't there, too, so there was no one to see through it.

Megan laughed as the face that Tobi had choose to replace his was Itachi's, which caused Deidara to blanch with shock and Kakuzu to chuckle, who had obviously realized that it was a genjutsu but let him have his privacy. Sasori wasn't paying any attention, and Konan was laughing out right along with Hidan.

Itachi and Kisame came in at the same moment that Tobi put his mask back on. Everyone stared, even Megan, who had already known what he was doing. Itachi was wearing glittery fake eye lashes and bright red lip stick. He cleared his throat, and then said, true to the dare, "You touch my tralala."

He then sat down and glared at them all. "We will never speak of this again." Everyone nodded, not wanting to incur Itachi's wrath.

It was Kakuzu's turn now, and it had landed on Hidan. Of course, his partner chose dare, which ended up with this argument.

"I will not fucking _touch _Itachi's tralala!" Hidan shouted.

"Oh? I thought you were the one calling others pussies when they did baby dares or picked truth," Kakuzu said.

Hidan growled. "Fine then!"

Hidan stood up, and was walking towards Itachi when Itachi caught his eye, pulling him into a genjutsu. Megan didn't want to know what kind of torture he was in right then.

Kisame was cackling as he took the bottle and spun it- and landed on Megan. Megan didn't even let him ask the question, she just immediately said, "Dare."

"Okay. I dare you to act like Tobi for the rest of the day."

"NO!" Deidara shouted. "That's the worst dare I've ever heard!"

"Meggie's a good girl!" Megan chirped.

"And Tobi's a good boy!" Tobi said.

"Megan, please stop acting like a retard," Kakuzu stated.

"Moo," Megan replied.

Kisame was still laughing, and with Megan's reply it had just gotten worst. Itachi sighed as he spun the bottle, only to land on Sasori.

Sasori, just as impatient as Megan, said, "Truth."

"Your whole body is wooden. Does it truly make you immortal?" Itachi asked.

"It makes me immortal in the sense that I do not age, but I can be killed," Sasori replied.

"Boring," Hidan yawned, having come out of the genjutsu. Konan rolled her eyes at his antics, and spun the bottle. It landed on Kisame, who grinned, showing many pointed teeth.

"Truth or dare, Kisame?" asked the blue haired woman.

"Dare."

"I dare you to only reply to someone when they call you 'fish sticks'," Konan said, smirking just as evilly as Megan had.

Megan lunged at Kisame, shouting, "Fish sticks!" and then tried to eat him.

"Megan, please stop biting me," Kisame said.

Megan stopped biting him, but only long enough to say, "Moo."

**You are truly acting retarded. I wonder how Obito can stand it.**

_It's fun, _Megan replied. _You're just missing your sense of fun. I suspect that Lee's eyebrows ate it, just like they ate Gaara's eyebrows._

**Sometimes, I think you truly are retarded. Wait, I take that back. I think you're retarded all the time, **the Juubi said.

_Hush, you._

**A/N: Hey you guys! I'm updating on Mondays for now on, even though I haven't come close to finishing this story. I'm just updating early this round. Also, I've decided to ask questions at the end of every chapter. You can answer them in a review, or even a pm if you want. :)**

**Question: Who's your favorite OC in this story?**

**My answer: I think it'd have to be Megan. She's just so funny to write as.**


	11. You Messed With the Wrong Kunoichi

**Disclaimer: Bobby's ANBU33's, plot is mine, and Naruto is Kishimoto's.**

**Chapter 11: You Messed with the Wrong Kunoichi**

_"What tremendous strength. I bet she's single."_

_~Kabuto~_

A silver blur passed Bobby and his mother. Wide eyes were hidden by Bobby's blindfold as at least ten women ran past them, screaming at the blur at the top of their lungs. Several of the women were ninjas, evident by the kunai and shuriken clutched in their hands.

"Help me!" Jiraiya shrieked as he ran circles around them. The women caught on immediately and waited on the other side of them, successfully catching the mega pervert.

"NOOOO!" Jiraiya yelled as they dragged him away, angry looks on their faces and mutters about castration. Jiraiya's horror only grew as the women started arguing about who would have the honor to castrate the lecher.

Bobby waved Jiraiya forward, as the women were too distracted to notice that their prey was escaping them. Bobby's mother's had done a wonder face-palm as she watched this.

They all silently snuck away, even though Bobby's mother obviously wished to let the women rip the pervert apart. _How he has survived this long, especially with all of his parts intact, I will never understand…_

Minutes later, they heard a shriek of anger from all the women in unison. Bobby's mother just shook her head. "You know, I'm gonna laugh when you get what's coming to you."

"I'm not about to get anything coming to me. I'm the great Jiraiya, after all. I can escape and angry horde of women all day," said the man, just as the women turned a corner.

"Get him!" the leader of the angry women yelled.

Jiraiya took off running just to be caught by a women that had the sense to go around the opposite way in case he attempted to run.

"No!" Jiraiya screamed as he flailed his arms, trying to get away. He suddenly paused, and asked, "Are those D-cup?" looking at the woman's breasts.

Bobby giggled as the pervert was slapped for that line, knocking him out. The women then dragged him away to who knows where.

x~x~x

Jiraiya woke up chained to the wall. _Kinky, _he thought to himself as he watched the women debate amongst themselves what they would do to him.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" said a very familiar voice.

"Tsunade-hime!" Jiraiya said, a grin splitting his face. "How nice to see you! Now, can you help get me out of here?"

The woman snorted. "I'll keep them from castrating you, but that's about it. So deal with it."

The women had finally decided on something, and half of them had left to get something. Jiraiya was still thinking perverted thoughts even though what he didn't know was that he was about to meet his worst nightmare.

One of the ladies that had been left in the dank basement had started a fire, and was smirking as she watched the flames. Booming noises sounded from the stairway soon after, and coming down the steps was the largest woman Jiraiya had seen.

She came to a stop before Jiraiya as the rest of the women came down the stairs behind her, all of them holding a black sack filled with something. One of the woman stepped forward, and opened the sack, showing him the many Icha Icha books in the bag.

"Oh, so you ladies are fans of my books? That's why you kidnapped me," Jiraiya said, nodding his head with a smug smile.

"Actually," Tsunade said just as the first woman with a sack came forward, and dumped the books on the fire.

"NO!" Jiraiya wailed with horror. "Those were masterpieces, and you're using them as kindling! Why?!"

The large woman stepped closer to him, blocking his view of the book burning. "Like what you see?" she asked, posing in what she believed was a provocative position.

Jiraiya's face was still froze with horror when he fainted.

Tsunade sighed. "Damn. And here I was hoping for some more entertainment. That was really funny..."

Shizune snickered as the large woman, with a poof, turned into a tiny pink haired girl. "Can we do that again, Shishou?" she asked.

"Hmm, maybe. When he wakes up again, we'll see," Tsunade answered.

x~x~x

Jiraiya woke with a dry mouth and confusion. _Where am I? _he thought to himself. Then, he remember, and really wished he hadn't when he almost puked at the memory.

"Oh. You're finally awake," said the woman that had caught him.

"Seriously, are those D-cups?" Jiraiya asked.

A vein throbbed in her head, and she said, "I'm not answering that. I imagine you don't remember me from before that then. We had a one night stand, when I was drunk, because if I hadn't been drunk, I definitely wouldn't have even came near you. Oh, you also got me pregnant. This is your kid." She took a four year old with mismatched eyes hidden from behind her back. Jiraiya stared at the kid with horror.

"That can't be my kid, though. He looks nothing like me!" Jiraiya wailed.

"Hey, I can see it," Tsunade said, smirking. "He has your nose, the poor thing."

"Hey, I have a handsome nose!" Jiraiya shouted.

"Keep telling yourself that," Tsunade murmured. Now, louder, she stated, "I had a blood test run. He is your kid."

Jiraiya fainted again, a look of pure horror on his face.

x~x~x

"Jiraiya's been missing for a week now. Don't you think we should go look for him?" Bobby asked his mother.

"I guess," she sighed. "I was having so much fun without him though, but I suppose we need to make sure the pervert's still alive."

"This was where he was taken, and they dragged him into this building," the boy muttered. "Now, we need to have an awesome entrance. Do you see a window?"

"Or, we can used the unlocked door," his mother said, opening the door for her overdramatic son, who had gotten stuck in a window.

"Oops," Bobby said, grinning nervously.

"Sometimes, the simplest of ways is the best way," his mother stated as she helped him out of the window.

"Yeah, I guess so," Bobby said, scratching his head as they walked through the door.

"He's in the basement," Bobby said as he looked with his Byakugan.

"Let's go," his mother murmured as they stalked down the stairs.

"Hey, welcome to the party," Tsunade said as she saw them. "I suppose you're here to take Jiraiya back? Well, you can have him. Burning his books and watching him cry gets boring after the tenth time."

"You're eviler than Orochimaru," Jiraiya said, tears streaming down his face as Bobby used a kunai to cut the rope that bound his hands and feet. His mother calmly took the key offered to her and unchained him from the wall.

Jiraiya started to cry harder now that he was free. "What is it now?" she demanded, exasperated.

"Your son needs better practice with kunai. He cut me," Jiraiya sobbed as he held out his ankle which had a small cut on it.

"Oh, come here you crybaby, and let's get back to the hotel."

**Question: If you could have any super power, what would it be?**

**My answer: To shape shift. I just think that the ability to swim in the dark depths of the ocean one minute and fly high in the sky another would be amazing. :)**


	12. Sad Eyes

**Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine. Plot's mine. Gwen is Narufan0001's.**

**Chapter 12: Sad Eyes**

_"For something that is precious to you, no matter how tough, no matter how sad, and even if you lose your life, protect it with these two arms. If you do that, even if you die, the proof of a man's life will remain forever."_

_~Kaizo~_

_"__So… who's your favorite character?" asked the short blonde who was laying on her bed, reading on her computer._

_"__Deidara, of course," answered the brunette girl._

_"__Obito!" a different blonde girl shouted, several inches taller than her sister, even though the other was older._

_"'__Tachi," answered the oldest girl who had first spoken, grinning at the other two._

_The only boy there glared at them. "What is it with you and the Akatsuki? They're evil Jinchuriki thieves!"_

_"__Hush, Bobby. You're just jealous that you're not as awesome as them," the brunette girl stated, grinning._

x~x~x

The ten year old woke up slowly, rubbing sleepily at her eyes. Next week, she would graduate. Deidara, like the mother hen he was, was terrified, even though they would obviously be on the same team.

_Jinchurikis…What is that? _Gwen thought to herself, her brow furrowed in thought. _And Akatsuki… Dawn… What does that mean? Maybe Nii-san will know._

After quickly getting ready for the day, she knocked loudly on Deidara's door. "Nii-san, I need to ask you a question."

"Go away, un!"

Gwen sighed. "Dei-nii-chan, I really need you to get up."

The boy groaned, but finally the rustling sound that signaled he was getting up happened, so she decided to make breakfast while she waited. Deidara took forever to get ready.

Half an hour later, with breakfast ready, Deidara finally emerged from the hole that was his room. The blonde immediately perked up when he smelled the food, and in seconds had finished his overloaded plate and was gazing at Gwen with puppy eyes, begging for seconds.

Gwen sighed, annoyed, but complied with his silent demand and refilled his plate until it was so heavy she could barely carry it.

While her overzealous brother ate, Gwen commented, "I had a really strange dream last night." She paused, wondering if she should ask, but finally decided that there could be no harm to it. "What are Jinchuurikis?"

Deidara suddenly started choking. Gwen quickly patted his back, eying him worriedly.

"Jinchuurikis?" he demanded, in a way not believing that she had asked about them.

"Yes. What, or who are they?"

Deidara ran a hand through his now unruly hair. "They're demon containers. Iwa has- no had two, but they usually stay away from us, and since we can't let the other villages know about this weakness, we can't send anyone after them."

Gwen nodded with understanding. _I must have heard the word somewhere before and subconsciously remembered it…_

"Actually, what's really weird is that a Jinchuuriki from Taki is coming here for the Chunin exams. You probably overheard someone talking about it and remembered the word in your sleep," Deidara stated with a shrug.

"Yeah…"

x~x~x

The ten year old stared at the mint haired girl. _That hair… and she also has orange eyes…And a Taki head band… This is-_

"Um, do you know where the Chunin exams are being held at?" asked the girl, who was surrounded by guards.

"Ah, sorry. I don't. Maybe my broth-"

Deidara stormed towards them, grabbing Gwen's arm as he passed. He looked as angry as he had ever been, and Gwen's arm hurt from the force he was using to pull her.

"What happened?" Gwen demanded with shock. Deidara had never showed any signs of anger like this before, even after his fights with the Tsuchikage.

Deidara whirled around towards her. "He's planning on trading you for Taki's Jinchuuriki!" he snarled under his breath.

Gwen felt as though someone had replaced her lungs with whoopee cushions. _Trade?_

An ANBU operative, someone that Gwen didn't recognize, - _How can I not know him? I know all of them. - _appeared right in front of them.

"You're coming with me, Miss," he stated as he reached out to grip her arm. Immediately, Gwen tossed an exploding tag attached to a kunai at him, knowing that it would only buy them time.

The eyes through the mask stared at her with shock. _Not surprising, considering they've constantly underestimated me._

Gwen took off running, Deidara right on her heels. The mint girl stared at them with shock, right before she herself ran after them. The shouts of her guards soon filled the air, signally to the siblings that they had better book it.

The ANBU appeared right in front of them, only to be intercepted by a different one. The raccoon mask on his face was easily recognizable. It was Ittan.

The Jinchuuriki beside them was forming hand signs, and turning over her shoulder, spat a wad of toxic goop at the guards that were also pursuing them. It hit one of them head-on, striking his face, and blinding him. By the sound of his screams, Gwen guessed that the blindness was permanent.

Beside her, Deidara was quickly forming a clay bird, which he threw at the rest of them just as Gwen threw a smoke bomb, allowing Deidara to make his giant bird in the chaos. Gwen grabbed the mint haired girl's hand and quickly lead her to the bird, all of them now on.

As they rose above the smoke, Gwen watched with shock as the ANBU in the raccoon mask was efficiently killed by the other ANBU. Tears and snot ran down her face, and she sobbed loudly. Her brother hugged her, while the Jinchuuriki silently watched with sad vibrant eyes.

x~x~x

"Let's land here for the night," Deidara said as he guided the bird towards the dark forest below them.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" the Jinchuuriki, whose name Gwen discovered was Fuu, asked.

"I can't keep this up all night. Besides, we all have to rest."

Fuu frowned. "Why can't she do it?"

"I don't have the chakra capacity for it. I've also never tried the technique, so it would be even more suicidal," Gwen replied.

"This is already suicidal," Fuu muttered, but she still helped set up a quick camp. The only thing they really had to do was pass out food and make a bed of leaves, since a fire would give away their location.

Deidara had first watch, but truthfully none of them could sleep. The sounds of the forest sounded malicious to Gwen ears, and every snapping twig was an ANBU coming after them, the whistling of the wind their voices.

Finally, Gwen fell into a deep sleep.

x~x~x

_"__Megan?" Gwen called. She couldn't remember who this Megan person was, only that she was important. For what, Gwen didn't know._

_A blonde girl- _that's not Megan_- materialized right in front of her, the smell of cedar trees incasing them both. Her head was down, so Gwen couldn't see her face. The brunette felt sick to her stomach._

_Slowly, the other girl's head rose up, revealing the blood that was dripping down her face like tears. A deep wound was on her head, and Gwen could see her brain through the crack in the bone._

_Gwen's legs failed her, and she slid to the ground, still staring at the blonde. _I know her. Funny, that it's her brain that hurt when she was the smartest of us-

_Gwen's brow furrowed. _Where is this information coming from?

_Snakes spurted out of the ground in front of her, causing her to quickly scoot backwards. The blonde girl didn't move, even as they crawled up her legs and encased her until she could see nothing except for piecing green eyes._

_"__You let this happen to her." The horrified whisper came from right behind her. Gwen stared at the accusing hazel eyes of the boy. A long jagged cut went all the way across his throat. Dazed, Gwen wondered how his head was still on his neck._

_"__I-" Gwen whispered, only to be cut off._

_"__Why?" The voice came from behind her, and now the blonde that had been covered in snakes was on the ground, her sad eyes now fully dead. In her place was the one she had first called for. If she had any eyes, maybe Gwen would be less scared. Of course, the gaping hole in the middle of her chest right where Gwen thought a heart would be wasn't helping either._

_Megan took a step towards her, now crying tears of blood. Another footstep sounded from behind her, and she knew that the boy was also coming towards her. There was nowhere for her to run._

_"__You did this," whispered Megan._

_"__You're a monster," the boy also murmured from behind her._

_They both took another step._

_"__You killed us all," the green eyed girl, no, monster, said._

_"__We're all dead dead dead because of you!" snarled the boy behind her._

_One more step and then they were embracing her, their accusation continuously ringing in her ears._

x~x~x

"Wake up," Deidara hissed as he shook his sister's shoulders. He had been trying for over five minutes since the sun had risen, but she just wouldn't wake up. He felt as though he was about to have a panic attack.

"Just carry her," Fuu hissed, just as Gwen woke up with a scream.

"Shit!" Deidara cursed as he picked his dazed and terrified sister up and started running. Fuu quickly was ahead of them, the weight of Gwen slowing him down. Besides that, she kept on struggling and hadn't stopped screaming.

"I didn't kill you!" she yelled. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…" She finally stopped screaming, but she was now steadily sobbing, even though her brother was trying his best to soothe her.

Fuu froze in front of the two siblings, staring in front of her at where an ANBU had appeared. The masked operative raised his hands, trying to convey that he wished them no harm.

Deidara suddenly threw a bird shaped wad of clay at him, causing others to come out of the trees and attack.

"Get her out of here!" Deidara snapped as he literally tossed his sister at Fuu, who concentrated and grew wings. She flew high above the rest of them, the brunette held in her arms as they fled, her sad orange eyes watching the blonde boy fight for his sister's freedom.

**Question: What's your worst fear?**

**My answer: My worst fear is being alone. If everyone I love is gone, then I have nothing left.**


	13. Mist and Fog

**A/N: I decided to update once more since it was the holidays. I have to do it now before my family starts running everywhere. :)**

**Disclaimer: Caitlin and the plot are mine, but Naruto isn't.**

**Chapter 13: Mist and Fog**

_"Below the courageous, there is nothing."_

_~Namikaze Minato~_

_Shit! _Caitlin thought as she ducked the blade that would have taken her head off her shoulders.

Caitlin gulped as she stared at the ninja before them, recognizing him as Momichi Zabuza, from the Bingo Books. She knew that they were nowhere near his level. Sensei would have to take care of this fight. If they could barely hold off the Demon Brothers, this new 'demon' would destroy them in seconds.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Hidden Mist's missing nin, Momichi Zabuza," Kakashi said, appearing to not be fazed, though none of his students could tell through that mask.

Naruto began to dart forward when his sensei's arm came in front of him, stopping him. _Oh my goodness, he was about to take Zabuza on his own! Darn it, Naruto!_

Caitlin grabbed Naruto and pulled him backwards just as Kakashi said, "Everyone, get back. This one's on a whole new level."

Kakashi's hand started towards his face, "Against him, it will be a little tough," and began to lift up his headband, "unless I do this." His headband was nearly sitting upon his forehead, but none of them could see his eye yet.

"You appear to be Sharigan Kakashi. Sorry, but the old man is mine," snarled the other man. No reaction was made by the genin, who had already been told this by their mentor when they were younger and he had first began to trust them fully.

"Surround and protect Tazuna," Kakashi ordered. "Do not enter the fight. That's the teamwork here."

Caitlin nodded, and stood in front of the client, scythe shining in the dull light as it made a small poof at being taken out of her summoning scroll. Sasuke stood at the right of Caitlin, while Naruto was to the left of the girl.

"First, Zabuza," Kakashi said, finally replying to Zabuza's threat to the bridge builder, "Fight me."

Caitlin watched with baited breath as Zabuza said, "I'm honored. It seems I already get to see that famous eye of yours."

Mist covered the area, blurring her senses as Zabuza used the famous jutsu of the Bloody Mist. _I knew I should have went to an eye doctor before this mission..._

Caitlin listened to the demon list off ways to kill them, and along with the mist and his killing intent, felt frightened for her life for the first time. She had known that the Demon Brothers wouldn't kill them because sensei could stop them, but she wasn't too sure that Kakashi could defeat Zabuza.

Suddenly, Zabuza was behind the genin, but the clone was quickly taken out by Kakashi. Another one appeared behind their sensei as the other was defeated.

"Behind you!" Naruto shouted, eyes wide with fear for his sensei.

The sword swung towards their sensei, and cut his clone in half. The real Kakashi (or what Caitlin thought was the real Kakashi) appeared behind Zabuza, a kunai to his jugular. "It's over!" Kakashi declared.

Caitlin let out a sigh of relief, vowing to never underestimate her sensei again, when Zabuza laughed.

"You think it's over? You don't get it. You can't defeat me with your monkey-like imitations!" the missing nin declared. "But that was impressive of you."

Caitlin almost had a heart attack as yet another Zabuza came up behind her sensei, a kunai held to his jugular. _It seems the tables are turned._

Kakashi stabbed the fake in front of him, and Zabuza swung his sword at Kakashi, who crouched to avoid it, but was then kicked by Zabuza when he wasn't fast enough to dodge, and went flying through the air, straight into the water as Zabuza shunshined there.

As their sensei attempted to get out of the water, Zabuza used the water prison jutsu, trapping the other man in a sphere of water, with Zabuza's arm sticking in it to keep it suspended in the air.

"You may have been trying to escape to the water, but that was a big mistake. Now I have you in my inescapable prison," Zabuza chuckled.

Their situation seemed to be getting worse and worse as the bandaged man created a clone before them. _Crap!_

The clone disappeared, only to reappear to kick Naruto and send him through the air, his head band landing where he had been before. Caitlin was still in front of Tazuna, realizing that the builder had no one else to protect him.

"You guys, take Tazuna-san and run away!" Kakashi shouted. "As long as he's imprisoning me, he can't move! The clone can't get very far, so run away!"

Zabuza's foot was on Naruto's head band, which caused Caitlin's fist to clench at the missing-nin's disrespect for her teammate. Naruto seemed to have come to a decision about Kakashi's words and was now rushing at the clone.

"No! Stop!" Kakashi shouted from inside the water prison, horrified.

_Naruto... _Caitlin thought, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood in her worry.

"Idiot," Zabuza snarled as he sent Naruto tumbling back towards them.

"Naruto, are you okay?" Caitlin demanded, kneeling in front of him just as he started to stand up, forehead protector in hand.

Naruto faced Zabuza, and muttered, "Hey, you eyebrow less freak. Put this in your handbook. The man that will be Hokage," and put on his head band, "the leaf ninja, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto glanced behind his shoulder. "Caitlin, Sasuke, lend me your ears. I have a plan." He smirked. "Let's get wild."

"That's not really a plan, Naruto..." Caitlin murmured, trying to figure out ways out of it too. _We need to get Bakashi-sensei free... But how are we supposed to get Zabuza away? We could use projectiles, since engaging Zabuza in close combat is practically suicide for inexperienced genin... We need to drive both him and the clone away from the water, so we have at least a little less of a disadvantage. A distraction..._

Caitlin was broken out of her thoughts as the clone suddenly punched Sasuke into the ground while sending out a fresh wave of killing intent. Blood flew from Sasuke's mouth as Caitlin realized that they needed a plan and quick.

Thousands of clones surrounded Zabuza as Naruto used his shadow clone jutsu, each of the clones holding a kunai, which they all used to suddenly try and get under the ninja's guard by swarming him.

_This is my chance! _Caitlin realized as she threw several shuriken and kunai at the missing-nin, realizing that Naruto was implementing his plan. Sasuke was thrown a shuriken after the clones had all dispersed, and now threw it along with Caitlin's projectiles.

The demon shuriken flew past the clone, and then the real Zabuza caught it, easily. What he wasn't expecting was that there was another one, which he jumped over, all while blocking Caitlin's shuriken and kunai with his blade.

The shuriken that had flown past him turned into Naruto, who held a kunai in his hand. As Zabuza turned, Naruto threw it. Zabuza dodged, just as the kunai Naruto had thrown exploded, along with the ones Caitlin had thrown, flinging Kakashi out of the prison. Caitlin and Sasuke quickly caught their sensei before he could hit the ground.

Zabuza had jumped into the air to dodge the explosion, and looked pissed. Blood dripped down his face from the wound caused by the triumphant Naruto. The angry man, still in the air, threw the shuriken, hitting the Naruto clone, and destroying him.

_Thank goodness I made him use a clone instead of himself... _Caitlin thought.

Kakashi stood up. As soon as Zabuza began making hand signs, he started too, and soon, the two monstrous water dragon jutsus collided.

Caitlin stuck the blade of her scythe in the ground to hold herself in place as she stood in front of Tazuna, the giant splash hitting even them, who were on the shore.

Zabuza and Kakashi were locked together, kunai against sword. They both jumped back, reassessing their options.

Kakashi continued to copy Zabuza's movements, until finally Zabuza seemed to snap, and made many hand signs, forming a clone. Zabuza couldn't seem to keep up with Kakashi's fingers, and his own jutsu, water explosion, was used to throw him backwards.

Like the water dragons, the wave came crashing down on the genin also. When the water cleared, Caitlin saw Zabuza, back to a tree and kunais in his arm and leg. "It's over," Kakashi stated from his perch on the branch of Zabuza's tree.

"How?" the missing-nin commanded. "Can you see the future?"

"Yeah, and you're going to die," Kakashi replied.

Two senbon pierced Zabuza's neck, causing him to fall to the ground. He didn't get up. Caitlin traced the projectiles' pattern to a different tree, where a masked hunter-nin stood.

The ninja laughed. "You're right. He's dead."

x~x~x

Caitlin stared at her reflection in the water. Caitlin had learned how to walk up a tree before she started to learn seals. Now, she was attempting to learn how to walk on water. So far, she wasn't succeeding, and was taking a break.

_Walking up a tree was pretty hard, too..._

x~x~x

**Flash Back**

Awe filled eyes stared at Itachi, completely ignoring Gai. Sasuke hadn't even noticed that his brother was there to pick him up, totally focused on hitting all the targets with his kunai.

Kakashi had noticed where Caitlin's focus had gone, and cleared his throat. "Gai, how about you stop chattering about your last mission and teach the girl how to walk on a tree."

"Yosh! Such a brilliant idea you had, my eternal rival. I shall fan Caitlin-chan's fire of youth by teaching her tree walking!" Gai declared.

A bright smile appeared on the girl's face as she lunged at Gai, hugging him fiercely. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," the tiny girl squealed.

Kakashi laughed. "You'll have to stop hugging Gai to be able to walk up a tree, you know."

Caitlin let go of Gai, but was still grinning like a maniac. Sasuke had finally noticed the commotion, and obviously wanted to learn, but his brother was already pulling him away.

"Mother wants you at dinner, Otouto. You can learn tree walking another day," Itachi said, a small smile on his face as his brother tried to tug away.

"Ahh, but Aniki," Sasuke started.

"I will teach you tomorrow, Otouto. Okay?" Itachi asked.

"Hai!" Sasuke shouted happily.

**End Flash Back**

x~x~x

_Hmm... Itachi never taught Sasuke how to walk up a tree. I wonder where he's at now... if he regrets it... _Caitlin shook her head. _No use thinking about it now. I have bigger things to worry about, like Zabuza and his accomplice._

Caitlin put a foot on the water, deciding to try again. _That foot is stable, now, for the other foot..._

As soon as her other foot lifted from the ground so she could put it on the water, she fell through. Now, soaking wet yet again, she dragged herself out of the water.

She pulled her long braid out of her face. _I really do need to cut it. It's really impractical to be a ninja with long hair... Naruto keeps on finding ways to stop me from cutting it. Idiot, _she thought fondly.

She glared at the water, thinking about how to go about it. _Maybe the problem is I'm only supporting my foot on the surface of the water. Maybe I need chakra under the water too..._

This time, she managed to get both of her feet on the water, right before she fell in again. _Yes! It worked. The added weight from pulling my foot up caused me to fall in the water! Now all I have to do is practice._

Caitlin practiced through the night, and finally, fell asleep there beside the water, still soaking wet.

Unknown to her, an older girl that look much like her stepped out of the shadows. "Silly Kk, you're going to get a cold like that," she scolded quietly, but there wasn't much bite in her words as she covered the younger girl with her cloak.

The girl glanced quietly towards the shadows. "I know you're there, kid, so come out."

Sasuke stepped out of the shadow of the tree. "Who are you?" the boy demanded, obviously surprised to see this new comer when he had went to check on his teammate.

The green eyed girl smiled. "It doesn't matter who I am. Besides, asking 'who are you' means so many things that you really should specify. Do you want to know my name, my personality, or something else?"

"Name," snapped the frustrated boy. His eyes widened when suddenly the woman disappeared.

"You know, you really should learn to be more polite. And now, I leave you with this gift for your rudeness," the blonde nameless girl said, as her hands flew through hand signs, and finally made contact with his back, forming a seal, and causing his hair to turn pink.

"It'll fade in a couple of hours. See ya!" she called as she shunshined away.

Sasuke stared with horror at his bright pink hair, and then he ran off, deciding that he didn't want anyone to see him like that.

"Oops, I left this behind," said the girl as she reappeared and took her cloak back, and then shunshined away yet again.

x~x~x

"Here they come!"

Mist surrounded them, seeming to consume everything around them until it seemed that the whole world was white. The powerful killing intent seemed to surge through the mist only moments later, causing Caitlin's knees to almost buckle and Sasuke to tremble.

A rough voice came from the mist. "Long time no see, Kakashi. I see you're still with those brats. He's shaking again. Poor kid."

A poof came from beside them, and suddenly, they were surrounded by Zabuza clones.

Out of the corner of her eye, Caitlin saw Sasuke smirk. "I'm shaking from excitement," he declared, even though most of them knew it was only a brave front.

"Do it, Sasuke," Kakashi demanded, causing Sasuke to move, and slice all of the clones with his blades.

"So, the fake hunter nin is truly Zabuza's comrade," Caitlin murmured, watching through narrow green eyes.

"I'll fight him," Sasuke declared.

"Give me at least a little of the action, Duck Butt," Caitlin complained, though she smiled at her teammate.

"Hn," was all Sasuke replied.

"Meanie," Caitlin muttered, just as the new comer spun into action, coming at Sasuke with a senbon held like a kunai. The weapons clashed, causing a sharp clicking sound.

"Caitlin!" Kakashi said.

"Yeah?" Caitlin asked, waiting for orders.

"Stay in front of Tazuna and don't leave his side," Kakashi demanded. "We'll let Sasuke handle him."

Caitlin nodded. "Understood!" She stepped in front of the bridge builder, her scythe having been summoned long before this.

Horror washed over Caitlin like the rain when she saw that Sasuke was locked with the boy, while the enemy was creating some sort of jutsu with only one hand. Water leapt up around the two, forming needles that lunged towards him as he focused his chakra.

The enemy jumped out, needles hitting the area where Sasuke had been, but had disappeared from. Shuriken were thrown at the boy, who leapt from place to place to get away from them.

Appearing behind him with a kunai in hand, Sasuke repeated his words back to him. "You're pretty slow... From now on, you will only be able to run from my attacks."

_Don't get too cocky, Sasuke. _Caitlin thought as she watched. _Never underestimate an enemy. You'll quickly be killed that way._

Sasuke attacked with his kunai, but the other boy blocked the attack with his arm. Ducking, the pretty boy avoided the kunai that Sasuke had casually flicked at his head. While the enemy was on the ground, Sasuke kicked him straight to the face, sending him flying through the rain.

"Haku, do you realize? At this rate, we'll be driven back," Zabuza said.

"Yeah, and we can't have that," Haku replied, who began to form hand signs, causing water to stretch behind Sasuke and create a prison of mirrors that surrounded him. Haku walked forward, until his body was completely immersed in the mirror. _I have a bad feeling about this..._

"Damn it," Kakashi snarled as he jumped forward, only to be intercepted by Zabuza.

_What do I do? Protect Tazuna, or save Sasuke? Well, sensei always did say that people who don't protect their teammates are lower than trash, so..._

"Sorry, Tazuna," Caitlin whispered, almost inaudible, and ran forward. She passed Kakashi and Zabuza, and completely ignored whatever they were doing. Sasuke needed the help, not her sensei.

Just as she threw a kunai at one of the mirrors, Haku came out and caught it, only to be hit on the mask and thrown out of the mirror by Naruto's shuriken.

Shuriken from Zabuza swished through the air as the senbon of Haku flew towards Naruto also. Naruto's grip on his kunai became white knuckled, and then the senbon knocked the shuriken out of the air.

"Zabuza-san, please let me fight them my way," Haku pleaded, as Caitlin decided that it would be better to protect Tazuna, since it seemed Naruto had no intentions of doing so. _Besides, I have faith in him. If anyone can save Sasuke, it's him._

"So you don't want me to interfere, Haku?" Zabuza asked. "You're soft as always.

Naruto seemed to have gotten into the mirrors, and Caitlin could hear the two boys arguing. "You total moron! If you're a shinobi then use your head! Why did you come inside the mirrors? Damn it! I don't care anymore! You're an idiot," Sasuke shouted.

"Sensei, do you want me to try and help them?" Caitlin asked.

"See what you can do," Kakashi replied, focusing on Zabuza.

Caitlin nodded to Tazuna, and then took off towards the mirrors, sliding through the gaps to get in.

"Now you too! What is wrong with you idiots?" Sasuke demanded.

Caitlin grinned. "All the right things are wrong with us. Besides, you looked like you needed the help."

"I don't need the help!" he snapped as Haku threw several needles at them. They were all hit by at least one.

"Are these poisoned?" Caitlin asked.

"No," Haku replied. "Why?"

"Because I left all my antidotes and herbs at Tazuna's house," Caitlin muttered, embarrassed.

"Seriously?" Sasuke said, as his hand flew through signs. "Grand Fireball no Jutsu!" he shouted as he blew fire at the mirrors.

"Nothing happened," Caitlin muttered as they saw the mirrors through the fire.

"You can't melt this ice with that level of fire," Haku simply stated, causing Sasuke to fume angrily.

Haku threw more senbon, causing Caitlin to clutch her leg as the boy hit a particularly sore spot.

"You know, I could have sworn that acupuncture is supposed to be pleasant," Caitlin muttered.

"Hey, that was a good one," Naruto growled as he tried to stand up. "Hey, where's the real one of you?"

"Trying to follow with your eyes is impossible. You will never be able to catch me," Haku declared.

"Bah," Naruto snorted. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!"

"Don't," Sasuke weakly said.

"Then I'll find the real one by crushing them all," Naruto declared as the clones lunged at each of the mirrors, causing Haku to come out of his mirror and rush past Naruto. The pretty boy jumped from mirror to mirror, until finally, all of Naruto's clones were destroyed by his senbon.

Naruto fell to the ground, and Caitlin quickly took his pulse. _It's not looking too good for us..._

"The jutsu uses the mirror's reflection to transport me," Haku explained. "From my point of view, you seem to be moving in slow motion."

"Damn it," Naruto snarled, slowly sitting up. "I can't die here! I have a dream I must fulfill!"

Haku paused. "Becoming a true shinobi is difficult for me... If possible, I don't want to have to kill you. Nor want you to have to kill me. But if you come at me, I can destroy my kind heart with a blade and become a true shinobi. This bridge is the place where we fight to connect our dreams.

"Me, for my dream, and you for your dreams. Please, don't hate me. I want to protect someone precious to me. To work for that person, to fight for that person, to make that person's dreams come true. That is my dream.

"For that, I can become a true shinobi. I can kill you," Haku declared.

Caitlin couldn't see anything outside, but she was almost certain that Kakashi and Zabuza were fighting now.

"Damn! Hey Sasuke, all we're doing is running around!" Naruto complained.

Sasuke glared at him. "We're gonna be hit. Just try and avoid a serious wound. There must be a limit to his chakra. He's already slowing..."

"You know, I have a bad feeling you just jinxed us by saying that and now he's never going to stop," Caitlin muttered.

"Stop being such a pessimist, Caitlin-chan," Naruto said. "You only make Sasuke even more emoish when you get like this."

Haku threw a senbon just then, which pierced right through Sasuke's knee. Naruto didn't get up this time, senbon littering his body. Caitlin couldn't stand herself, her left leg refusing to work.

Naruto was now trying to get up, when Haku told Sasuke, "You move well. But this time, I'll stop you."

Sasuke seemed to be focusing intensely, and when the attack came, he grabbed Caitlin and Naruto, pulling them out of the way of the attack.

"Thanks, Duck Butt," Caitlin muttered tiredly.

"You are! I see, you also have a Kekkei Genkei," Haku muttered, seeing the boys eyes.

"You finally... did it...teme..." Naruto murmured, attempting to congratulate his friend.

"Thanks, dobe. It's just a little bit, but I can _see!"_ Sasuke said.

"Then I can't do this much longer. My jutsu uses up a lot of chakra, so there's a limit to how long I can go at this speed," Haku stated. "Most likely the longer this fight goes on, the better you will be able to read my movements. If your eyes are starting to catch me..."

Haku lunged out of the mirror. "This is the end!"

"Naruto!" Caitlin shouted, using her good leg to throw herself at the blonde boy while Sasuke did the same, though with less of a handicap than the girl.

Haku was sent spiraling through the air as Sasuke punched the boy, senbon piercing him and Caitlin.

"Sasuke... Caitlin... you- Why?" Naruto sputtered with shock. _Why does he always seem so surprised when someone does something for him?_

"You're... our f-friend," Caitlin managed said, grimacing at the pain from the needles.

"But... but why me?" Naruto demanded. "I never asked for your help!"

"Dobe, didn't Caitlin just explain why? Stop asking inane questions," Sasuke said, just as he fell backwards. Naruto and Caitlin caught him, though Caitlin's knees buckled under his weight.

"That man... Itachi... I told myself I wouldn't die until I found out the truth about that day..." Sasuke murmured.

"You're not gonna die," Caitlin whispered. "We won't let you. If you ever do, I'll travel to the afterlife and bring you back to life and then beat your ass."

"Yeah, what she said," Naruto said, a tiny smile on his face.

Sasuke stopped moving, and it seemed to Caitlin that the world froze.

"He landed a blow on me without flinching, and died to protect you. To protect a precious person, knowing it was just a trap, he was able to jump in too. He is a shinobi that deserves respect," Haku muttered, trying to stand up. "Is this your first death of a friend? This is the way of the shinobi."

Immersed in the mirror, Haku watched, as Naruto said, "Shut up."

Caitlin cried, loud sobs shaking her shoulders.

"I won't forgive you! I'll kill you!" Naruto declared, red chakra slowly began swirling around the boy. Caitlin backed away from the corrosive chakra, slightly afraid. _It's Naruto, though. He wouldn't hurt me._

_Would he?_

"He's healing himself..." Caitlin said, surprised. _And growing claws. Meep!_

"Naruto, you need to calm down. This won't bring Sasuke back," Caitlin stated, in an attempt to calm Naruto down.

"SHUT UP!" the boy roared, not wanting to believe that his friend, one of the first people to acknowledge him, was dead.

Naruto ran at Haku, on all fours. _He's acting like an animal! This is the fox's influence, though..._

Haku threw senbon at him, which he deflected with pure chakra. _How is that possible?_

The pretty boy lunged at Naruto, coming out of a mirror, senbon in hand. Naruto dodged the attack easily. Haku, in an attempt to get back to the mirrors, was caught by the arm. A pulse of chakra was sent out by Naruto, which almost seemed to destroy the mirrors. Haku whimpered with pain from Naruto's vice-like grip.

A punch from Naruto sent Haku flying through the prison, pieces of his mirrors scattering everywhere. Cracks formed on the mask, and Haku slowly stood up. Blood dripped from the cracks, as the mask fell in pieces from his face.

Naruto jumped towards the boy, as the other one just stood there, almost resigned to his death, and accepting it. Naruto aimed a fist at him, and stopped, several inches away.

His voice was rough, the chakra somehow affecting it, "You... you're from that time..."

"Why did you stop?" asked the young boy. "I killed your precious friend, yet you can't seem to kill me."

"Damn it!" Naruto snarled as he finished his punch, sending the dark haired boy flying.

Landing, he coughed up blood. "What happened to your intensity? You can't kill me with that...There are people that make this mistake, not killing their enemies because of pity. Letting them leave with just their lives...not having a dream, not being needed by anyone. The pain of just simply living."

"What are you saying?" Naruto demanded.

Haku smiled sadly. "Zabuza has no need for a weak shinobi. You have taken away my reason for living."

Naruto's brow furrowed. "Why for a guy like that? He's a bad guy that takes money from a criminal! Is that eyebrow less freak the only important person to you?"

Haku didn't reply for a very long time. "I had people very dear to me once... a long time ago...my parents. I was born in a small snowy village in the country of Mist. I was happy. My parents were very kind people. But... When I grew up and began to learn the ways of the world, something happened."

"What happened?" Caitlin asked gently, coming out of the prison of mirrors.

"This blood..." Haku murmured as he wiped it away.

"So, what happened?" Naruto demanded. Caitlin already had a guess. _The Mizukage started a war to try to destroy all the bloodlines in his country... so most likely he and his parents were targeted..._

Haku finally answered. "My father killed my mother. And then, he tried to kill me."

"What?" Naruto breathed with horror. It just wasn't something that he could picture, seeing so many loving families in Konoha.

"Mist country had endless civil wars, and those with Kekkei Genkei began to be hated," Haku explained.

"What?" Naruto asked, confused.

"Bloodlines with special abilities, like mine," Haku explained. "Because of these abilities, clans with such special bloodlines were used as weapons in countless battles. As a result, these blood clans were blamed for bringing misfortune and war to the country. After the wars, these clans had to hide the own truth about their own blood. For those whose secret was discovered, only death awaited. That young man must also have experienced much hardship. Those with special abilities are often feared.

"My mother was from one of these bloodlines. My father discovered this... When I realized what I had done, I had killed him... my own father! And at that time, I thought of myself as...No, I had no choice but to think that and I realized the most painful thing..."

"The most painful thing?" Naruto asked, while Caitlin silently watched and listened.

"That in this world, I am an unwanted person... You said to me that you wanted to become the best ninja in your village and have everyone acknowledge you... Now if someone acknowledged you from the bottom of their heart appeared wouldn't that person become the most important person to you?" Haku asked.

Naruto was silent, so Haku continued. "Zabuza-san took me in know I had a Kekkei Genkei. This blood that everyone hated, he desired it. I was so happy," Haku cried tears slowly streaming down his face.

"Naruto-kun, please, kill me," Haku pleaded.

**Question: Who's your favorite villain?**

**My answer: My favorite villain is either Tom Riddle, Obito, or Madara.**


	14. Babies and Bijus

**A/N: Last chapter, I forgot to mention several very important things. The first is that Narufan0001 has posted her story! The second is that I have a new poll out, and whoever the winner is will get their own little one shot to go with this story (It'll be a strange little AU). :) And I'm also really sorry for updating late!**

**Disclaimer: Megan is nightheart777's and the plot is mine, but Naruto is neither of ours.**

**Chapter 14: Babies and Bijus**

_"I'm telling you this because you don't get it, you think you get it, which isn't the same as actually getting it. Get it?"_

_~Hatake Kakashi~_

**You know, the chunin exams are coming up soon.**

_Yeah, I realize that. Great, let's just hope that my crazy sister doesn't get herself killed._

**Orochimaru worries me, especially if he were to truly get a hold of the Sharigan, and be able to use it himself.**

_I agree. Kabuto is also a major threat, considering he works with Tobi towards the end._

**The Sharigan users will kill him easily enough.**

Megan frowned. _Yeah, but I like Itachi and don't want him to die. Besides, it would make KK cry. Just like Obi dying would make me cry._

**We'll somehow get around it then. Maybe once your sister gets her memories back she will kill Kabuto and Orochimaru.**

_We had an agreement, my sister and me. I would kill Kabuto, we would kill Orochimaru together, and Danzo was Caitlin's._

**No comment.**

_Technically, that is a comment._

**What are you going to do about the Jinchuriki?**

_Don't know yet. I've already saved one biju, though, so I have a head start on the Akatsuki._

x~x~x

**Flash Back**

_The three tails is near here, _Megan thought, more to herself than the Juubi.

**Then go get it.**

_I was gonna do that, but I'm trying to figure out what to do._

**You suck with seals, so I suggest using the Preta path, which can absorb chakra, even biju chakra, and put the biju inside a baby so that they can adjust. **

_What if I just absorbed the biju?_

**I would then absorb the three tails, so bye-bye three tails, then.**

_Okay, I get it. I'll go find a baby and hope this doesn't ruin his or her life._

x~x~x

_Poor child, _Megan thought to herself as she stared at the young baby boy in her arms. Nobody had wanted him, and called him a demon, just because he had two different colored eyes.

Both of the boy's eyes were blue, but one was lighter and the other darker. They had been about to kill him because they blamed Mizu's war on him. They needed someone to blame, but a baby? That was just crazy. Though, she supposed most people were crazy.

Megan knew that she couldn't take care of him; Tobi would see through her ruse in an instant. So, she would take him somewhere safe, or to someone safe.

It took her days to arrive there, but she had her own spies from when she wasn't in the Akatsuki. The woman with the pigtails was arguing with an easily recognizable silver haired man, who, strangely enough, had a pink haired child by his side.

"I can't train her! She's a kid! She shouldn't be choosing what to specialize in at this age! She's what, five?" Tsunade screamed.

"Eight," Sakura whispered.

Tsunade sighed. "It's not that much of a difference, kid. Besides, don't you have other medics that can teach her?"

"Yeah, but old man Hokage said that he wanted _you _to train her. And who am I to say no?" Jiraiya said, grinning at his old teammate.

Tsunade sighed. "I can't train the kid. I just can't."

Jiraiya frowned. "Look, Tsunade-hime, it's an order from the Hokage. You can't ignore it. It won't go away and I doubt that it will change. Hokage-sama is going to send someone every six months to see your new student's progress."

"I guess there's no helping it," Tsunade muttered.

Megan sighed as the old teammates used the rest of the day to drink, leaving Sakura and Shizune alone together. Shizune immediately had Sakura demonstrate several things to see how good her chakra control was. It seemed she was very impressed.

Finally, after a night of drinking, the silver haired man left. Megan could not go through with her plan yet because Tsunade was sleeping the morning away. Shizune woke her at three, so she decided that would be a good time to get it over with.

Megan caught up to the Slug Princess at her motel, and called out to her. "Tsunade-sama?"

The woman turned around, surprised. "Look, if you want a healing, you'll have to find someone else."

"No, a healing is not what I want. Daichi- I want you to take care of him."

"What! Why?" Tsunade demanded.

Megan smiled at her incredulousness. "He is a Jinchuriki. I happen to know that bad things are happening to Jinchurikis, or will happen. He needs someone that can hide him easily, but is strong enough to hold off one of the ninja that may come after him."

"What is he the Jinchuriki for?" Tsunade demanded.

"Sanbi," Megan replied.

Tsunade frowned. Megan could understand her struggle. She understood where Megan was coming from, but she didn't want to take care of another kid.

"Tsunade, you cannot tell anyone of his Jinchuriki status. There are more spies on your side than you think…"

"On my side?" Tsunade frowned. "Are you a part of the people that will start attacking Jinchurikis?!"

"Yes, I am. I do not agree with their views, however, so just think of me as a spy that was never officially recruited," Megan said, smirking. "And I really should be going, so…"

Tsunade watched as the girl calmly left the building after handing the baby to Tsunade. The baby screwed up his face and started screaming, not liking Tsunade very much. Tsunade just sighed as she left towards the nearest convenience store, hoping they weren't sold out of diapers and baby formula.

**End Flash Back**

_Hmm, the Wave mission is happening now, _Megan thought to herself as she watched the fight.

**Great, you're gonna save them too, aren't you?**

_You know me so well._

**Bijus and missing-nins. You have horrible taste in lost puppies.**

_Oh, hush you. Besides, I think this has gone on long enough, _Megan thought as she place her mask upon her face. Her mask was much like a wolf ANBU mask. The right side was black, smirking with its eye partially closed. The left side was white, and frowned instead of smiled with its eye wide open.

She stepped into the mist, using the Preta path to disperse it. "Stop," she commanded in a chakra enhanced voice.

"What the hell?" Zabuza muttered.

"He's tricked you, you know. Gatou, that is. He's not planning on paying you, but that you all die here. Even if you don't, he's gather together most of his men to attack any survivors. If I were you, I'd team up to fight against them," Megan said, pretending to not really be interested in it.

They were all frozen, debating what to do. If what she said was true, it could mean the end for all of them. If she was lying, there would be hell to pay.

"Caitlin, check the little Uchiha's pulse. I think you'd be surprised to learn that stubborn Uchiha are very hard to kill, and most definitely don't lose to people like Haku," Megan stated.

Caitlin quietly followed her orders, her mouth gaping when she realized that her teammate was alive.

"He has a pulse," Caitlin's quiet voice called out, an unusually bright smile on her face.

Naruto cheered as the others waited, and minutes later, Gatou and his men showed up. "What are you doing?" Gatou demanded. "Do you want the money, or not?"

Almost appearing bored, Megan flicked a kunai at his head, so fast that no one noticed until blood spurted from his head, and he fell to the ground, dead.

"She killed Gatou," one of the men whispered with shock. Whispers and murmurs spread wildly throughout the crowd as many of the subordinates began to run. Megan flickered in front of them, waggling a finger at them as though they were merely bad children.

On the other side of the crowd, Zabuza ran forward, and began to fight the civilians that had worked under Gatou. Blood sprayed through the air as he swung his sword, causing even more to run towards Megan, who had taken out her two katanas, and had already stabbed her first victim. Some began to jump off the bridge in their terror. Megan used the Deva path to draw them back, right onto her sword. Soon, no civilian was left.

"That was ridiculously easy," Megan stated.

"Agreed," Zabuza said.

"Here," Megan said, tossing him a sack. "It's more than Gatou gave you, and more than enough for you to leave this country. I imagine that Mist would take you back, because you left because of the war. Of course, I could be wrong, but it's just a guess."

"It's a thought," Zabuza agreed. "But Mist constantly has civil war. I doubt a new Mizukage will change that."

"So where will you go?" Naruto asked.

Zabuza shrugged. "Anywhere, I suppose. We'll find some place to go to. Right, Haku?"

"Of course, Zabuza-san," Haku said with a whisper, surprised that his master would take him back even though Haku believed that he failed.

Megan smiled as she watched this, and appeared beside Naruto, ruffling his hair as she walked toward her sister. "Good luck, you guys. You're gonna need it." Then, she simply shunshined away, to leave them wondering who she was.

x~x~x

Back at the Akatsuki, everything was normal. Not. When is anything normal at the Akatsuki, especially with Megan around?

Kisame rummaged in the fridge, until finally, he found his prize, his favorite soda. As soon as he took a giant swig out of it, he spat it out.

"WHO THE HELL PISSED IN MY SODA?!"

**Question: Who is your favorite hero?**

**My answer: My favorite hero is either Itachi or Clary Fray (from the Mortal Instruments Series).**


	15. Sake's Blood

**A/N: I have a new story up called Heaven's Memories. It will be one shots relating to Reaching for the Sky. Whenever I have an idea for that, I'll post something in it, so don't expect too much. :) I've got a couple more planned out for Heaven's Memories like Hemlox's background, and one for an OC that won't show up for a long time.**

**Disclaimer: The plot is mine and Bobby is ANBU33's. Naruto is Kishimoto's. He won't give it to me for Christmas. :( Pooh.**

**Chapter 15: Sake's Blood**

_"A hero always arrives late."_

_~Uzumaki Naruto~_

"So, you've decided to travel with us?" his mother asked as Bobby stared at the pink haired girl that walked beside him. Of course she didn't realize he was staring at her, since he was wearing his blindfold.

"Yep," Tsunade answered.

"After what you did, I can't believe you have the nerve!" Jiraiya snapped, looking like he was going to cry from the trauma at any minute.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that bad, so stop complaining. Even my little apprentice complains less than you."

Sakura laughed. "Thanks, Shishou," the pink girl said, taking the strange sort-of-compliment well.

Jiraiya pouted while the others chit chatted amongst themselves. "Hey, kid?" Tsunade asked.

"What is it?" Bobby asked.

"The chunin exams are coming up. Have you thought of entering them?" the busty woman demanded.

"No! But they sound awesome! Can I enter them, Kaa-chan?" Bobby asked, jumping up and down with excitement.

"No, you're not ready for them. Besides, we don't belong to a village, so I doubt they would let you enter," his mother informed him.

Bobby pouted. "Ahh, but I wanted to go..."

"Hmm, how about we go watch the chunin exams?" Jiraiya asked.

"No," Tsunade responded immediately.

Jiraiya sighed as he looked at his teammate. "Tsunade, we could wear henges. Besides, it'll be fun."

"No, it won't," Tsunade argued.

"Tsunade, I'm not going to make you stay in the village. We can watch the test, and then leave," Jiraiya explained.

Seeing the hopeful faces from everyone around her, Tsunade replied, "No! I just... I just can't!" In a huff, she left, most likely to a bar or gambling den.

"Oh, great." Jiraiya muttered as they all ran off after her. She quickly managed to lose them, years of losing people trailing after her to get their money back helping her accomplish this. Soon, Bobby was separated from the rest of the group.

_Great, now where could they be? _Bobby thought as he walked down the quiet street. No one was out of their house, and as he passed, people glanced out of their windows curiously at him after moving the curtains. _Okay, something is seriously up here. This place is mega creepy..._

"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?" demanded a voice behind him.

Bobby whirled around. "It's you! Hey Hemlox. Why are you here?"

The masked blonde snorted. "I asked you first."

"Oh. I got lost. We were chasing after Tsunade, but the others were running too fast, so I got left behind," Bobby explained.

"Ah. Well, I'm here on a mission. This place is really dangerous, with an S-Rank missing-nin patrolling it, and terrorizing the people around here," Hemlox stated as he grabbed the boy and dumped him on the roof of a house near them.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" asked someone from behind them. When they turned around, they saw a man with silver hair and lavender eyes, wielding a scythe easily in one hand.

"Shit," Hemlox muttered. "There's the missing-nin..."

"I'm gonna have fun sacrificing you two to Jashin-sama," Hidan said, a devilish grin on his face as he moved forward at lightning speed, only to be flung back as someone punched him straight in the stomach.

A pissed off Tsunade stood before them in all of her glory. "What the hell are you thinking taking on a missing-nin with a kid right beside you?"

"I was thinking that I needed to get him out of there, but it wasn't an option at the time," the man snapped as he grabbed Bobby and jumped away, to a much safer distance.

Hidan stood up from where he had been thrown. "Bitch!" he snarled as he ran at her, scythe ready to slice her. The woman dodged easily, and kicked him in the back, throwing him from the tiled roof onto the ground, and most likely breaking a couple of bones.

Hemlox patted Bobby's shoulder. "I'm gonna go evacuate the civilians from the area with you. This isn't gonna be a pretty fight."

Bobby nodded as he was pulled away, his eyes on the battle all the while. Tsunade had jumped from the roof, and had created a hefty crack from the force of her landing. Hidan had jumped over it and his scythe was slicing through the air towards her.

Snarling, Tsunade dodged the blow, and lashed out with her fist, hitting the arm that hit the scythe, easily breaking the bone.

Hidan howled in pain. "Asshole! I'm gonna kill you!"

He ran at her, scythe in his other hand, and managed to kick her hard in the chest, sending her backwards and causing blood to fly from her mouth.

"He managed to break two of my ribs," Tsunade murmured, right before she caught sight of the blood, and froze.

"Shit!" Hemlox snarled as he saw what had happened. Bobby continued evacuating the civilians, though he looked very worried. _What's wrong with Tsunade?_

Just as Hidan was about to slice her with his weapon, Hemlox appeared in front of the man and parried the blow with his katana. The sword was jerked out of his hand by the scythe immediately afterwards, but it had given him time to form several one handed signs.

Finishing the signs, Hemlox shouted, "Fire Style: Great Fireball no Jutsu!" Fire flared towards the ninja, who yelping, was pulled out of the way by several long, think, black threads. The man's partner appeared on the roof where they had been before, the structures coming out of his body supporting the unconscious and burnt missing-nin.

"You deserved that, Hidan," the man muttered to his partner as he shunshined away with the silver haired man.

"Tsunade?" Bobby questioned as he moved forward towards the comatose woman. She didn't respond. Just as he was about to touch her shoulder to shake her out of her stupor, and hand grabbed his arm.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. She might accidentally kill you right now if you're not careful. We should probably find her assistant and see if she can't wake her up," Hemlox explained through the ANBU mask he wore.

Bobby nodded as the other ninja left to find the others. Bobby moved a hand in front of her face, and when that didn't do anything, moved it back and forth, trying to get any sort of reaction he could from her. Bobby frowned when she still didn't react, and decided to wait for the other to get back and see if they could help her better than he could.

"Tsunade? What happened?" Jiraiya asked as the others came, shock tinting his voice.

"She helped fight one of the bad guys, but suddenly froze," Bobby explained.

Jiraiya noticed the blood on the ground just as Shizune hugged her mentor, finally waking her up. "Huh? Shizune? What happened?"

"You got into a fight, Tsunade-sama. It appears that you saw blood, and froze," Shizune explained, carefully making sure that she was blocking the blonde woman's view of the blood on the ground.

"Oh..." Tsunade whispered.

"Come on, princess. I think we all need a trip to the hot springs," Jiraiya stated.

**Question: How are my fight scenes?**

**My answer: I think that a lot of practice would help, and that I need to make them longer. My sister has also told me that I need more details in my fight scenes, so those are going to be what I'll try to focus on when I write more of them. I would actually like people to point out my mistakes for these. Please. :)**


	16. Numbness

**Disclaimer: Gwen is Narufan0001's. Naruto isn't mine, but the plot is.**

**Chapter 16: Numbness**

_"__When did you all forsake yourselves?"_

_~Gaara~_

Gwen groaned, smelling something frying, like bacon almost.

"Are you awake?" asked a quiet voice. Blue eyes slowly blinked, flinching against even the slightest light from the fire, even though most of it was being blocked by the worried Fuu.

"Yeah. What happened?" Gwen asked, slowly sitting up. "Where's Deidara?!"

"I… I don't know where your brother is. We tried to wake you yesterday, and you just wouldn't get up. When you finally did, we were ambushed. You kept on muttering something about being sorry, and that you didn't kill them. Your brother stayed behind to fight while I got us out of there. Who were the 'them' you were talking about, anyways?" Fuu asked, a slight tilt to her head the only thing signaling her curiosity.

"I don't know," Gwen answered, frowning. It all just seemed so blurred. She had faith that her brother would find them, though. "I think we should wait here for Deidara to catch up."

"Gwen, I don't think he's going to catch up," replied the orange eyed girl, who constantly look sad.

Gwen felt desperate. _Nii-san will catch up!_

_Right?_

"Can we please wait for a couple of days, at least?" Gwen asked, grasping for anything.

"Three days," Fuu stated, as she turned her back to the brunette and laid down to sleep. Gwen stared at the starry sky above her, and felt numb.

x~x~x

Three days passed quickly, and with their passing Gwen became more and more aloof. Fuu gave her an extra day, but still, the blonde didn't show up.

Gwen wanted to protest, and stay for however long was needed, but she knew that they were pushing their luck.

The forest was oddly silent around them. Usually, it was filled to the brim with the sound of various animals. Gwen wasn't the only one to notice, and now both girls held kunai in their hands.

The person who emerged from the bushes in front of them was not what the two were expecting. The man was maybe several years older than them, and wore an open blue kimono. A container was slightly hidden in his kimono, its purpose unknown to the two girls.

"Who are you?" Fuu demanded.

The man slowly blinked at them, almost bored. "My name is Utakata."

"You're not ANBU, are you?" Gwen asked.

He shook his head. "I'm not an ANBU. I don't even work for a hidden village, so you have nothing to worry about from me. Are you in trouble?"

The girls exchanged looks, and after a couple of seconds, Gwen came to a decision.

"Yes. Iwa wanted to trade me for Taki's Jinchuuriki, so my brother got me and her out of there. He stayed behind to stop them," Gwen answered, relieved in a way to get that off her chest. It made her feel slightly less numb, the pain filling her with a sense of clarity.

"Ahh. I can relate to that feeling of betrayal. My village has also betrayed me." He hesitated, and then finally stated, "I am the Jinchuuriki for the Rokubi."

With that proclamation hanging in the still air, he sat down in front of the fire, both of the girls' mouths gaping open with shock.

He glanced at them, and then serenely stated, "You'll catch flies doing that."

The surprise of that coming out of his mouth made Gwen laugh. It was all hitting her hard. _Nii-san's probably dead, and I'm stuck out here with two Jinchuurikis. What the fuck?_

Both the girls slowly sat down beside him, Fuu still weary. Gwen believed that he was telling the truth though, knowing that being a Jinchuuriki was something that no one joked about.

"Is it alright if I travel with you?" Utakata asked, sluggishly blowing colorful bubbles out of a pipe.

"Yeah, it's alright with me. What about you, Fuu-san?" Gwen asked politely.

The mint haired girl looked up from where she had been staring at the dancing flames. "I am fine with it."

Gwen, frowned, sensing that not all was right with the girl, but didn't comment. She knew better than most that there were some things that shouldn't be spoken of until the perfect time. This was likely one of them.

Staring at the flames, Gwen couldn't help but feel numb again. Her brother was out there somewhere, maybe even dead or hurt, and she wasn't doing anything. What kind of sister was she?

Gwen abruptly stood, causing the normally indifferent Fuu to stare at her with surprise. Utakata watched on silently, already having guessed her motive for standing.

"I'm going back to the village to find my brother," Gwen stated, her back tall and straight.

Fuu frowned. "I'm going with you."

"So am I," Utakata also said as he rose from where he had been sitting.

"Why?" Gwen blurted out. "Why the hell are you doing anything for me?"

"We don't have much in the world, us Jinchuuriki, so we hold on tightly to anyone that accepts us," the brunette boy replied, a slight smile transforming his face.

Fuu nodded, agreeing with his sentiment. She walked towards her new friends, and smirked at her. "We can't leave little Gwen alone, can we?"

Gwen puffed out her cheeks, annoyed, but didn't say anything, and watched with a slight smile as her two new friends laughed.

_You're not the only ones that haven't also had any friends before…_

**Question: Who's your favorite character of all time?**

**My answer: Itachi, obviously, though I also like Severus Snape a lot too. :)**


	17. The Chunin Exams Begin

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Caitlin and the plot are mine, though.**

**Chapter 17: The Chunin Exams Begin**

_"I don't need that Uchiha kid... Because there's no fun in teaching a prodigy that was born perfect."_

_~Jiraiya~_

"I want that cat and that cat," Caitlin said looking at the brown female tabby and the black male cat.

The owner gave her the cats as she paid the money for them, walking out of the store with a cat under each arm. Naruto had edged away from her, and was staring at the black cat.

"So, what are you going to name them?" Sasuke asked.

Caitlin sort of wiggled the brown one, and said, "I'm naming this one Hashirama, and the other one Madara. They're going to have adorable kittens together."

Sasuke was staring at her with horror, and even Naruto was giving her a weird look. "You know, I think Madara hates me," Naruto randomly said.

"Dobe, I think both of them hate you. Who would like you anyways?" Sasuke said, trying to rile Naruto up.

"TEME!" Naruto snarled as he lunged at him and they began to wrestle in the middle of the street.

_Boys will be boys, I suppose..._

"You guys, I'm gonna go put the cats up and then train with Gai-sensei and Lee," Caitlin said as she turned and left them there.

Naruto and Sasuke stopped fighting and stared at one another. "One of these days, she's gonna come back from one of those training sessions as a Gai clone, like Lee did," Naruto stated.

Sasuke groaned. "Either that, or a Kakashi-sensei clone."

"Truthfully, I'm hoping for the Gai clone," Naruto stated. When Sasuke gave him a weird look, he shrugged. "I'd rather her have a questionable fashion taste than read porn."

x~x~x

Caitlin stretched as far as she could, going slightly beyond her toes. "So, finally decided to show up?" the blonde girl asked as Naruto and Sasuke entered the training grounds, a little worse for wear. Gai was observing a spar between Neji and Lee, while Tenten was stretching with Caitlin.

"Oops?" Naruto said, an embarrassed grin on his face.

"Come on dobe, we need to train," Sasuke said as he began the stretches just as Caitlin and Tenten finished theirs and started on their katas.

"So, have you started using senbon yet?" Tenten questioned Caitlin.

"Not yet, but I planned to start today," the younger girl answered.

"Good," Tenten replied. "Can you mix me up some more of that paralytic poison for my weapons? It's a good way to defeat Neji and Lee in our spars."

"Sure, but don't become too dependent on it. It's not very advanced, so anyone above Chunin will be immune to it," Caitlin said.

"Good to know," Tenten said. "But by then, you'll be even better at mixing that crap up, so I won't have to worry."

Caitlin smiled. "True, I suppose, unless something happened to me or I decided that I wasn't going to work with poisons anymore, which isn't about to happen any time soon."

They sparred for the rest of the day, since Caitlin was trying to improve her ability with her scythe and her senbon. She was decent with her scythe, but she kept pricking herself with her senbon, which made it more difficult to grip her scythe afterwards. Pricking senbon was also dangerous in the field because they would most likely be poisoned. _We were lucky Haku's senbon wasn't poisoned._

Caitlin lost the spar, but she had been expecting that. She wasn't sparring to win, she was sparring to improve.

"You're getting pretty good with your scythe. I've noticed that using it wears you out pretty quick, so tomorrow you might want to work on upper body strength," Tenten explained to the younger girl, who she viewed as a little sister of sorts.

"I'll do that," Caitlin answered, smiling at the brunette as she waved good-bye, already at her apartment.

"You'd better," Tenten called as she disappeared into the night.

x~x~x

_Sheesh... I can't believe that we might be chunin soon. It seems too soon. _Caitlin was nervous, really nervous about the upcoming exams. Strong on the surface, her teammates were also nervous beneath their very different facades.

Their sensei was pushing them harder than ever, seeming to believe that they could pass. He made them get up earlier than he ever had, knowing that they would be on time and wait on him by training their time away. After that, it was onto team exercises.

Kakashi tossed to Sasuke what looked exactly like a sex doll with underclothing and red lips. Naruto almost burst into laughter, and slight snickers could be heard from behind their female teammate's hand.

"Today, my cute little genin, we are practicing team work. You are to protect that doll from my attacks, and the doll cannot be moved from that circle of kunai to your left. If one of my attacks against the 'client' succeeds, you fail," Kakashi explained. "Now, begin."

The silver haired ninja disappeared, and the genin surround the doll. Caitlin's green eyes flickered back and forth, waiting for an attack from their sensei. Finally, one came, but it was at Naruto instead of her.

A silver kunai was thrown by Kakashi from a bush to Naruto's left, barely blocked by Naruto's own kunai. Another one came at Naruto, this time from a different bush the same time one was thrown from the bush from before.

Sasuke, sick and tired of his hidden sensei, used a katon jutsu to destroy the bush that had first hidden Kakashi. The bush burst into colorful flames, but there was no fried sensei…

Caitlin felt her ankle grabbed, and lost hold of her scythe as she was pulled neck deep into the earth. "Seriously?" Caitlin demanded as Naruto started to try to dig her out. Kakashi, seeing an opening, aimed a kick at Sasuke's head, which was dodged, before throwing a kunai at the doll. Naruto deflected it, abandoning Caitlin in the ground.

"You have horrible luck, Caitlin-chan," Naruto muttered as he finally managed to dig her out while Sasuke defended the doll from Kakashi's many thrown kunai. He was going easy on them while Caitlin was incapacitated. Caitlin, finally freed, picked up her scythe and sliced towards her sensei as he came at her. She missed, but it kept him away from the doll.

"When is this supposed to end?" Sasuke muttered.

"I don't think he put a time limit to it," Caitlin admitted as she once again tried to land an attack on her annoying sensei.

"Well, I can do this all day," Naruto snarled as he pulled away from the circle, creating a bunch of clones as he went, which all jumped Kakashi, kunai ready. None of them landed a single hit, but it was a good try.

Caitlin decided right then to charge him since he was still recovering from Naruto's attack. Naruto was back in the circle, taking her place as she went. Her scythe made a shimmering arc through the air before her sensei stopped it with a kunai. Caitlin jerked her scythe towards his face, causing him to step back and drop his kunai in order to keep his face normal. Faster than she could see, he crouched down and grabbed his kunai off the ground, whipping her legs out from under her as he did.

"Shit!" Caitlin cursed as she fell on her butt.

"You know, such words shouldn't come out of young ladies' mouths," Kakashi stated as he cheerfully turned a page in his book, completely serene.

Caitlin growled, but didn't leap forward like she wanted to. She knew her attack wouldn't connect anyway, and it would leave the doll defenseless on one side. She backed away, towards the doll just as Sasuke was attacked. His legs, too, were swept out from underneath him, and, with a flourish, Kakashi shoved a kunai in the doll's head.

"Damn it!" Naruto and Sasuke yelled in unison. Caitlin sighed at the expected defeat. She knew it would happen, but it didn't make the failure sting any less. _I've got a long way to go before I'm anywhere near sensei's level. Hell, I've got a long way to go before I'm even Haku's level..._

x~x~x

Caitlin watched the boy in green spandex curiously. _He's downplaying his skills... The Lee I know would have beat them in seconds._

"You're just a little kid," one of the chunin snarled. Caitlin paused, watching the door. _Not the right floor..._

"Please let us through," Tenten begged the chunin, acting very well the part of the pleading kunoichi. For her troubles, she was kneed in the face. Caitlin winced. _That had to hurt._

"How horrible," someone in the crowd muttered as Caitlin signaled to her teammates to follow her. They silently walked up the stairs to the next floor, Caitlin nodding to Tenten and Lee as she went.

"Let's try not to draw attention to ourselves, alright?" Caitlin asked the boys as they walked down the long hall.

"I'll try, but I can't guarantee anything. I'm just too awesome to keep hidden for long," Naruto stated, smirking.

"Hn. It seems the dobe will never learn the art of subtlety," Sasuke said, an almost identical smirk on his face.

"Hey! I so can!" Naruto snapped.

"Then talk less loud," Caitlin informed her teammate. "That would help a lot."

x~x~x

_I have a bad feeling about these exams... The last time I had this feeling... _Caitlin shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. _I need to be level headed to take this exam. It will be easy for me and maybe Sasuke, but Naruto..._

She looked worriedly at Naruto, who seemed to be panicking. Caitlin was already half way finished with her test, and she doubted Naruto had been able to answer a single question. Caitlin finished her test, just as a thought hit her. She quickly erased her own name and put Naruto's.

Standing up, she ignored the gaping looks as she went to Naruto's seat and switched tests with him. The proctor stared, and then laughed.

"I'll accept that option, but no one else may copy her!" Ibiki snapped. "You're lucky kid that I was in a good mood."

_Oh. Awesome, it worked!_

Finally, the last question was given to them. "Now, then, if you're ready, the tenth and final question. Those who don't want to take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded, and then you're free to go."

Caitlin quietly thought. _How can he have the power to keep us a genin forever? I doubt he does have that power, and is just trying to screw with our heads, and get rid of the ones that aren't willing to risk it all._

Numerous hands were raised, and then Naruto's hand went up. Caitlin felt all of the breath leave her in a giant whoosh. _He fell for the trick..._

His hand shook violently, right before it slammed right onto the desk in front of him. "Don't underestimate me!" the blonde boy shouted. "I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want, but you guys aren't gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage someday!" By now, Naruto was standing up in his anger.

Speech finished, the boy sat back down in his sit, Hinata staring at him with admiration. _Sheesh, I really need to do something about that. It's just that Naruto never understands my hints when I talk to him about Hinata. And while they would be adorable, Naruto is just so different and loud…_

Ibiki began to speak again. "This decision is one that could change your life. If for any reason, you would rather quit, now's your last chance."

Naruto looked the proctor straight in the eye as he said, "No way, I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way." These words seemed to give strength to the remaining genin, none of which rose their hands.

After waiting a bit to see if anyone else would give up, Ibiki declared, "Well, then, I like your determination, if nothing else. For those of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you, that you've all passed the first exam."

"Where's the tenth question, then?" one of the genin asked.

Ibiki laughed. "There never was one. Not a written one, anyway. Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second," demanded a blonde sand kunoichi. "So the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time?! Is that what you're saying?"

"Oh, no, not at all," the scarred proctor chuckled. "Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important purpose: to test your ability to gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh, well that clears up everything," the blond ninja said.

"Let me explain," Ibiki began. "You see, my objective was to test you not only as individuals, but as a team, and how well you functioned as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis, so you'd know that everything you did, or failed to do, would directly affect your teammates. I wanted to see how you'd handle the pressure."

Naruto nodded his head. "Mhm. Yeah, I figured it was something like that. It's why I kept my cool."

Caitlin raised an eyebrow and shared a look with Sasuke, but made no comment. _We're gonna have to teach him when to stay quiet. It's like potty training a puppy dog that has already decided that that one place in the corner is his area to use the bathroom..._

Ibiki continued. "The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any genin to be expected to solve. I imagine that most of you quickly came to that conclusion that you'd have to cheat if you wanted to have any chance of passing. The fact is, the test is designed to encourage cheating. It almost demanded it. Of course, it would have done you little good unless you had someone to cheat from. So I disguised two chunin that knew the answers, and had them sit in with you."

Naruto laughed after having a mild panic attack. "Oh come on, I wasn't fooled for a second. You had to be a complete doofus not to see it. Isn't that right, Hinata?" he asked the blushing girl.

"Those that were caught at it, failed. Better not to cheat than to cheat clumsily. Information: it can be the most valuable weapon in battle," Ibiki stated as he took off his forehead protector, revealing numerous scars. "How well you can gather information in a battle can help you determine whether a mission is a failure or a success. There'll be times you have to risk your life to get it."

He tied the object back around his head. "Of course, you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bear this in mind. Disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades, or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat, in order to survive. And that's why those not good enough at it were weeded out. Leaving the rest of you."

The blond Suna girl spoke up. "Okay, but I'm still not getting what the tenth question thing is all about."

Caitlin sighed, and decided to spare Ibiki from explaining to the slow blonde. "It was to test your resolve. In the field, you may have to die for your village or your mission. This was just a test of courage, to see if we're ready for it. The ones that left, obviously, are not."

Ibiki nodded. "She is correct. That is exactly the purpose of the tenth question. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those whose determination falters in the face of adversity, those who would put those comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor will never be able to call themselves chunin, at least as long as I'm here. As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I put to you. You have earned the right to continue onto the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this part of the Chunin Selection Exam completed. There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck."

"All right! We did it! That's one down!" Naruto shouted, jumping up out of his seat to cheer happily.

Just then, someone burst in through the window, throwing kunai attached to a giant poster as they went. "Heads up boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor. I'm Mitarashi Anko. Are you ready for the second test?" She didn't wait for an answer before sticking her fist in the air and shouting, "Good! Let's follow me!"

**Omake**

"SHE NAMED HER FUCKING CATS AFTER US!"

Hashirama sighed, and then replied, "Yes, she did. There's nothing we can do about it though. And at least your namesake is male. Mine's female."

"SHE PLANS ON HAVING US HAVE KITTENS TOGETHER!" Madara shouted, his face twisted with horror. He then paused. "Didn't your brother create a resurrection jutsu?"

"Yes, but I doubt anyone knows it. Or is stupid enough to bring one of us back. And it's not _us_ that are having kittens together, it's the cats. Besides, I think the cats are cute," Hashirama stated.

"THEY ARE NOT CUTE! IT'S THE MOST DISTURBING THING I'VE SEEN IN FOREVER!" Madara shouted.

"Well, should we ever be resurrected, you can kill her, alright?" Hashirama asked.

Madara took a deep breath, as though he were going to shout again, but simply said, "Alright."

**Question: What's your favorite animal?**

**My answer: …Dragons. I don't care if they're not real!**


	18. The Prank War Begins

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, or Megan (She's nightheart777's wonderful creation who I'm borrowing for a little while). The plot is mine, though.**

**Chapter 18: The Prank War Begins**

_"__You now, this assignment we've been given really doesn't mix well with my beliefs. Carnage is the key precept of the faith of Jashin… the dogma doesn't let me leave someone half dead._

_~Hidan~_

The Akatsuki were in chaos. They were all pranking each other. Hidan hadn't been allowed to sacrifice for the week, so he had been following Megan around in sheer boredom.

"Is a week over yet?"

"Moo," Megan replied, choosing to just continue on with her dare since there was no time limit to it and it at least made Hidan pause as he wondered what that certain moo translated into.

"I'm not fucking going away until I'm allowed to sacrifice again," Hidan informed her, smirking as she glared at him.

As they passed the kitchen as Kisame ran out. "You!" he snarled, pointing at Hidan.

Hidan burst into laughter. "Oh, Jashin! He really fell for it!"

x~x~x

"A prank war has started in the Akatsuki. Prank others at your own risk, but do not kill anyone. Or at least try not to kill anyone. Oh," Pain said. "Prank me, and you die." He left the room with a sweep of his cloak that strangely reminded Megan of a certain Harry Potter character.

Megan laughed evilly, and looking at Deidara, stated, "See you later, girlfriend!" as she disappeared to find Orochimaru's nude photos of Itachi to put them on the fridge.

Deidara stared at where she had been at. "Did she just call me a female?" he demanded in a very high pitched voice, which cause Hidan and Kisame to snicker, and then glare at each other.

"You two…" Konan trailed off, feeling like a mother with way too many kids.

Tobi left the room while this was happening, most likely to plan evil pranks. Or help Megan with hers. Probably both.

Soon enough, everyone had left while Kisame and Hidan argued. Finally, Kisame noticed.

"Where is everyone?" the blue man asked as he looked around.

"How the fuck should I know?" Hidan snarled at him, scowling.

Both the men scowled and went to their rooms to brood. Of course, brooding was the last thing on Kisame's mind when he saw his room. The walls were painted with fish, and very well drawn fish at that.

"Deidara!" he shrieked just as another scream, which he recognized as Megan's, came from down the hallway.

Footsteps pounding, he, Deidara, and Hidan both arrived at Megan's room where the girl was staring into her now very pink room with horror.

"How does Megan-chan like it? Tobi thinks it looks pretty," Tobi exclaimed.

Megan stared at her best friend. "Start running," she stated, causing Tobi to take off with Megan hot on his heels.

"But Tobi doesn't understand! Tobi thought the room was pretty!" Tobi yelled.

Hidan gaped at the pink room while Kisame glared at Deidara, who looked at extremely confused at Kisame's show of anger. "What happened?" the blonde man asked.

"Someone thought it would be funny to paint my room full of fish," Kisame stated.

"Oh, so that was why Megan was coming out of your room," Deidara murmured, finally understanding. "She likes to draw a lot, so that would be why there are fish covering your walls, un."

The shark-like man bared his teeth as he went running down the hall in the direction Megan had went. He would never catch up, but the man was going to at least try.

x~x~x

A truce was called for dinner, but not before Deidara got to Sasori's puppets and burned most of them. Sasori seemed to be in shock, and stared at his plate that Konan had filled with food that he couldn't eat. Kakuzu grumbled at the waste of money, but let it slide this once.

When Hidan walked in for lunch, his hair was a bright red. Everyone stared.

Kakuzu looked pissed off. "It was supposed to be pink!"

Megan snorted, "Moo! It's what you get for stealing my and Tobi's prank!"

"Yeah! Moo!" the masked man stated with a nod.

Hidan laughed. "Thanks, you fucking money whore. The color reminds me of blood."

Megan was smirking from where she sat beside Deidara. "Hey, Dei-chan, what do you use for your hair? It's so feminine and shiny," Megan said.

Deidara opened his mouth, and then closed it, turning red with rage. "Shut up, un," he snapped.

Tobi and Megan both giggled as Deidara growled and shook his fist at them, but didn't attack Tobi. He knew better than that by then. The first time Megan had seen him beat Tobi up she did the exact same thing to Deidara, and then broke all the fingers on both of his hands.

Dinner ended without incident, until Megan attempted to get out of her chair. Her bottom was firmly planted to the seat, no matter what she did. There was the tiniest hint of a smile to Itachi's face. "It's because of the letters I sent to you pretending to be Orochimaru, isn't it?" Megan asked.

"Hn," Itachi replied, which Megan took as a yes. _Why can't Uchihas talk like normal people?_

**Because monosyllabic words are more mysterious. Stupid Uchihas and their ridiculous attempt at pretending to be in the category of the unknown. Only someone of my caliber could pull that off.**

Megan snickered aloud at the Juubi's mini rant, and gained several strange looks, including one from a still dumbstruck Sasori. "Moo…"

_I wonder why they think I'm laughing…_

**They most likely think you to be a crazed murdering psycho. I know I do.**

_Hush, you._

**Hush yourself.**

Tobi was panicking, and attempting to rip Megan off the seat, which only made her arms hurt as he pulled on them. "Lollipop, I think you're gonna rip off my arms."

"Oops. Tobi is sorry," the masked man replied in a sullen voice.

"Now, shoo, all of you," Konan stated as she waved her hand at them in dismissal. Soon, they were all gone, along with Konan, who came back a few minutes later with a new pair of pants for Megan, who she helped wiggle out of, breaking the chair in the process.

"Sheesh. Why could Itachi use glue that would be easy to get out of?" Megan complained.

"Because, not only did you put nude photos of him on the fridge, you sent him perverted letters pretending to be Orochimaru," Konan simply answered with a raised eyebrow. "Truthfully, I would have done worse. The poor kid probably has psychological damage now."

"Meh, he'll get over it," Megan replied, flopping her hand and shrugging.

Konan laughed. "I suppose he will."

x~x~x

"Shhh-He can't know we're here," the woman with the sparkling piercing whispered to her companion, who had bright blue stripes down her cheeks.

"I know, I know," Megan replied, tiptoeing around the blonde man's bed. Konan grinned cheekily at her as she silently used frayed, yet strong rope to tie Deidara to the bed. He didn't stir until the sound of the electric razors hit his ears.

He groaned and opened his eyes. Taking in the sight of two looming figures above him with strange instruments in hand, he yelped loudly.

Megan and Konan both snickered as they started on separate sides of his head, quickly and efficiently shaving his blonde head until no strand of hair was left. Megan gathered the bundle of yellow in her arms, and winking, walked out of the room with it.

"NO! My precious hair!" Deidara wailed as Konan untied him. "I'm gonna kill you with my bare hands! You're not worthy of becoming art, un!"

Konan quickly dodged the kunai and ran out of the room. She continued until she reached Pain's room, and raced into it, slamming the door shut beside her.

The sleeping man didn't wake at her loud entrance, already used to the chaos of the main Akatsuki base. Sighing, Konan locked the door and slipped into bed beside him, the silence seals on the door allowing her to not listen to Deidara's cries.

x~x~x

Snickering at the pouting Deidara, she tossed him his hair.

"It's wig now, to go on your poor shiny bald head. I hope you like it," Megan said winking at him as she carefully sat in her chair at the dining table. "Oh, and moo."

"I hate you, un," the now bald man stated as he quickly put the wig on. Sasori, who was already at the dining table, was smirking, enjoying their prank even more than the two women did. Konan was outright laughing as she made breakfast.

Megan suddenly caught sight of Deidara's hands and burst into laughter. Konan also saw them, and noticed that Sasori's smirk had grown.

_Oh my Jashin! Look at Deidara's hands! Sasori must have put make-up on them!_

**Even I have to admit, this is hilarious. But what sort of ninja that was already attacked lets down his guard just to be pranked again?**

_I don't know, but I hope it happens again!_

Deidara stared at his hands with horror and then rushed off to the bathroom, bumping into Itachi on the way, who raised his eyebrow when he saw Deidara's hands.

"Red lipstick looks good on you," he serenely stated, smirking slightly.

"I hate you, un!"

**Question: Have you ever pulled a prank on someone, and if so, what was it?**

**My answer: I have pulled some pranks before, but a funny one from when I was little was when me and my sister found a huge can of paint. We covered our parents' room in paint. It was so bad that even the TV was covered with it. Then, we found our Mom's make-up, and put it on. Considering I was five at the time, I put it all over me, not just on my face. Whatever was left over was smeared all over the bathroom and on our dad, who was napping. He could sleep through anything. Now he wakes up at the slightest thing, so we can't prank him. ;)**


	19. Bonds

**A/N: Hi! I decided to update in celebration of New Year's, but yesterday my internet sucked, so…**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but the plot is mine. Bobby is my cousin's.**

**Chapter 19: Bonds**

_"Will I... Will I also be able to become strong?"_

_~Inari~_

"Are we there yet?"

"No," Jiraiya answered, exasperated. Bobby had been asking the same question for hours, and Jiraiya was getting tired of it. Actually, he had been sick of it around the third time Bobby asked.

"Ah, but my feet hurt," the boy complained.

"Too bad!" Tsunade snapped, even sicker of him than Jiraiya was, if that was possible.

Bobby made a face at the woman's back as she marched ahead of them, Shizune and Sakura, who was holding Daichi, straining to keep up.

"Tsunade-hime, you're going too fast for the rest of us to keep up!" Jiraiya called to his former teammate.

"I don't care!" the woman snapped, but all the same, she slowed down for the others to keep up. They couldn't fly through the trees yet, because Bobby didn't have the control, so they were traveling the longer way on the ground.

Silence fell over the travelers, until, "Are we there now?" Bobby's ritual statement was spoken, just as Jiraiya was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with him.

"No, we're still not there, Bobby-kun," Shizune answered with a sigh.

"When will we be there?" Bobby demanded as he paused to rub at his sore feet through the ninja sandals.

"Not for a couple more days," Tsunade answered.

"Oh," Bobby said as he began to trail after them. He frowned as he realized that someone was tailing him, and that someone was good since Jiraiya hadn't made a single signal to show that he had noticed. Not too sure how to convey his message, Bobby stayed silent.

Jiraiya had now paused, and stated, "A mile ahead of us, coming fast are two ninjas of about chunin caliber."

Bobby wasn't too worried about them, but there were still being tailed and no one had mentioned it. The only reason why he had noticed was because of his eyes. _Please notice soon, because I can't tell you with them in hearing range. Besides that, they'd probably be able to read my lips._

They all waited, Tsunade and Jiraiya hiding their signatures so that the missing-nin couldn't tell they were there.

The chunin arrived with a burst of kunai thrown at Bobby, who they seemed to have decided was the weakest link. Bobby easily knocked them out of the way with his bare hands, having seen the attack from miles away. _Not really, it's just that my Byakugan saw through the bush as they threw it, which gave me enough time to prepare to block._

Tsunade punched the ground, creating a fissure that caused the slower chunin to break her legs. His mother immediately was behind the chunin, slashing her throat and killing her. Jiraiya tripped the surviving chunin easily, and pinned her down.

"Why are you here?" the silver haired sannin demanded, pressing a kunai to the girl's throat.

"I-I'm from Rain. Me and-and Ran decided to l-leave because of the constant w-wars," the girl sobbed, not much older than Bobby. Bobby felt bad for her, but he understood the seriousness of the situation.

Still… "Can't we just let her go? There's no reason to keep her," Bobby asked.

"She attacked you!" his mother said, looking angry.

Jiraiya sighed. "We can't. If Rain heard that I and Tsunade protected a missing-nin of their village, we'd start a war."

"But-" Bobby began.

"Turn away, kiddos," Tsunade said as Jiraiya slowly drew a kunai. He stopped, just as a feminine person walked out of the forest, looking like an ANBU member of Rain.

"I will be taking her," the girl (or at least Bobby assumed she was a girl), stated as she pulled the other girl up by the back of her shirt.

"What are you doing?" Jiraiya demanded.

"Rain is short on ninjas," the girl explained. "So we are capturing our missing-nins and taking them back. We are also placing trackers in them so that it will be impossible to run away without pulling them out and killing themselves because of the placement."

The missing-nin looked terrified. The ANBU member appeared to whisper soothing words in her ears as she knocked her out. The now captured nin was silently carried away into the forest.

_Thank goodness…_

x~x~x

Bobby stared at Jiraiya in horror. "I have to kill a bunny?"

Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "Yes, you have to kill a rabbit. You have to learn it at some point, so I suppose the present is best."

Bobby groaned with horror. "But it's a cute bunny rabbit!"

"Yum," Jiraiya said. "It's dinner."

Bobby pouted as Jiraiya nudged him towards the forest. "Don't worry, I'm sure after the first couple of times you'll like hunting," Jiraiya stated.

"That doesn't help or make me stop worrying," Bobby murmured. Jiraiya just laughed as he sat down beside Tsunade around the fire pit that lacked fire. Sakura and Daichi were looking for wood right then.

Bobby trailed into the forest, searching for food. _Damn, how long is this gonna take? _Finally, Bobby came upon a rabbit, and walked silently toward it. As soon as he took another step, his foot crushed a leaf beneath it, breaking the almost silence of the forest with a loud crunching noise. Bobby sighed as the rabbit took off running, and knew that he wouldn't be able to catch it now. It would be too far away, or already in its burrow.

Bobby groaned loudly in the now truly quiet forest, which was devoid of the regular animal noises because of his inability to remain silent. He soundlessly began to stalk forward even deeper into the forest. Time passed slowly in that place, seconds seeming to last eternities.

After what seemed like weeks, Bobby finally found another rabbit. The creature was chewing on a stolen vegetable, a carrot, he thought. _That rabbit is starting to look tasty now… _Just then, his stomach growled loudly. _Damn it!_

The rabbit froze just then, in an attempt to stay hidden. _Yes! _Bobby thought as he drew a kunai, and without thinking, almost casually tossed the blade, piercing the poor creature's eye. Bobby came forward, and then stared at the sightless eye of the bunny. Hot tears began to well up in his eyes as he realized that he had just taken an innocent life. _It was just a bunny…_

Sobbing loudly, he ripped the kunai from the body of the rabbit, and wiped it off on his pants. He, fumbling, placed the kunai back in his holster. He picked up the rabbit, and then carried it like a mother would a baby, tears sliding down his face all the while.

He soon arrived back at camp, and laid the rabbit down next to Shizune, who had a kunai in hand so she could skin the rabbit. The fire had not been started yet.

"Where are Sakura and Daichi? They've been gone far too long for just wood," Shizune murmured worriedly.

"Sakura should be able to take on most ninjas at chunin level, which means she's encountered something above that. Or, she was distracted by herbs again, which is the most likely," Tsunade stated.

"Still..." Shizune said.

Bobby's mother sighed. "I'll go."

"Thank you, Akira," Shizune replied, relief staining her face.

x~x~x

Sakura hummed as she picked up yet another piece of wood. She wasn't too far from camp, so she wasn't very worried about enemy nins or bandits. Beside her, Daichi also was grabbing wood, until the small boy paused.

"I smell smoke," the soft-spoken boy stated.

Sakura sniffed the air, but already knew the boy's instinct was correct. It always was.

"Come on, let's go," Sakura said as she began to follow her nose.

"Sakura-nee-chan, are you sure about this? Shouldn't we tell the others first?"

Sakura just shrugged his concern off. "Stop worrying. We can handle this."

Silently, the two began to walk towards the smell, and soon enough, the sound of a merrily crackling fire filled their ears. The two froze when they felt a kunai pressed to their throats. "What are you doing here?" a feminine voice hissed.

"You're-!" Sakura whispered with surprise.

"Ah-Um, we were j-just wondering who w-would be out here," Daichi stutter, his shyness beginning to shine through his usually silent exterior at the sight of a person he didn't know.

The Rain ninja nodded as she silently took the kunai away from their throats. It was the girl from before that stood behind them. She looked better than she had before, with clean clothes and wet red hair that had clearly just been washed. "I remember you two. Sorry about before. Me and-and Ran," the girl choked with a sob, "we didn't want to kill anyone."

"I noticed," Sakura replied. "Whichever one of you threw the kunai aimed for his shoulder, not his heart."

"Yeah," the girl whispered. "That was Ran. She trained herself in medic jutsu. She was gonna teach me some."

Daichi, adding to the awkwardness of the situation, heard his own stomach growl, and turned a bright pink. The two girls stared at him.

"I'm hungry," the child whispered.

Sakura laughed. "Yeah, we were supposed to be getting wood so we could eat."

"Here," a new voice, gruff, stated as the person attached to the voice tossed a piece of jerky to the small children. The man was huge, and a strange cleaver-like sword was hanging from his back. Instead of the symbol of Rain on his head band, the symbol of the Hidden Village of the Mist boldly stood, scratched out, on his headband.

"Ah, don't panic, please," a quiet voice, that of the hunter-nun, pleaded.

Sakura had already drawn a kunai and stood proudly in front of Daichi. "Who are you?" the pink haired child demanded.

The supposed ANBU member sighed. "We will tell you the truth, then. I am not a hunter-nin from Rain, but an orphan from the civil war in Mist. My name is Haku. This is Zabuza," the child said, gesturing towards the huge man with the sword. "This is actually a true Rain nin, who really did flee from her country because of the civil war. Her name is Shizuka."

"Why did you save her?" Sakura asked, mystified.

"Huh? Why wouldn't they save her? All she wanted was to get away from the war," Daichi said, naively trusting them.

"We saved her because we have seen war before also," Haku answered.

Daichi quietly chewed on his jerky while Sakura thought. _A war… To think that it would make them betray their village…_

Silence ruled over the group, until finally, the ever strange Daichi broke it. "What happened to your parents, Miss Haku?"

A burst of laughter came from Haku. "Daichi-kun, I am a boy."

Daichi stared with his mouth wide open, revealing pieces of half chewed jerky. "Oh," he finally replied after he swallowed, blushing fiercely with embarrassment.

Haku sighed, and then began his story with closed eyes. "My mother had a bloodline, and hid it all her life because if it was found out, she would be killed. One day, my father figured it out, and killed her. So, in turn, I killed him, before he could kill me. After that, I lived on the streets for some time before Zabuza found me." He opened his eyes, and met Sakura's green ones and then Daichi's mismatched ones... "Ninja life is not all sunshine and roses. It never has been, nor will it ever be."

Zabuza stretched now that Haku's tale was finished. "Sheesh, why do we keep on running into you crazy Konoha ninjas?" the swordsman demanded. Daichi eyed the weapon curiously and Sakura felt very worried. _Please, oh please don't decide to become a swordsman. And if you do, don't decide that you want this guy as your teacher._

Without expressing her concerned thoughts, Sakura asked, "What Konoha ninjas?"

Zabuza frowned in thought. "It was a team under Hatake Kakashi. They weren't half bad, for brats."

"Do you remember the names?" Sakura demanded, curious about her fellow ninjas.

"I think so. One of them was some brat named Narudobe, or something like that. Then there was another blonde brat with a weird foreign name, and the Uchiha brat." Zabuza frowned in thought. "The only reason why they aren't dead right now is that some weirdo with a mask showed up and saved them. She didn't wear a headband, so I can't tell you what village she was from."

"Weird," Daichi said. Somewhere, in the back of his memories, he could remember a woman wearing a mask, muttering over and over that everything was going to be alright. He wasn't very sure whether she had been reassuring him or herself.

Sakura was frowning. "Naruto and Sasuke…" _To be able to hold off ninja of this caliber… even if they weren't alone is amazing… I hope that someday I will be able to be as strong as they are._

"Someone is coming. Come, Haku, Shizuka. It is time for us to leave," Zabuza stated as they all silently took off into the trees.

Left alone, Sakura and Daichi gaped at the place where the three had been. A noise caused them to turn around. Bobby's mother, Akira stood there, frowning sharply at them. "What is taking you two so long?" the woman demanded.

Daichi and Sakura looked at each other, and silently agreed to not tell the truth so they wouldn't get in trouble. "I thought I saw an interesting herb, but it was just a weed," Sakura explained quickly.

Akira obviously didn't look too deep into their lie, as she seemed to believe them as she herded them back towards camp, collecting extra wood along the way. They all dropped the wood into the fire pit and sat around it as Shizune started a fire. Jiraiya was giggling perversely beside Tsunade, grinning evilly as his pen flew across the page.

Bobby was strangely staring at the skinned rabbit with tears in his eyes, and sighing, his mother went to comfort him. This was the image Sakura fell asleep to after they (except for the mourning Bobby) ate rabbit. _My family is so strange…_

**Question: Who's your least favorite character of all time?**

**My answer: Peter Pettigrew. He was a coward and a traitor.**


	20. All That's Left

**Disclaimer: Gwen is Narufan0001's. Plot is mine, but Naruto isn't mine.**

**Chapter 20: All That's Left**

_"__I gotta say, this village's design is pretty artistic. Means it's really worth destroying."_

_~Deidara~_

Gwen stared blankly at the village before her. And then, red hot rage overpowered her.

"Those motherfucking bastards! I'm gonna fucking kill them!" she snarled as she lunged towards the gates, intent on leveling the whole village.

"Is that her brother?" Utakata murmured as he forlornly stared at the severed head that was hung on the gates, eyes sightless now forever.

Fuu shook her head, helping the brunette restrain the other girl. "I'm not entirely sure who he was, but he helped get us out when we fled the village."

The brunette boy frowned, thankful that they were far enough away that the guards didn't notice the commotion. "Gwen, you need to calm down."

"I will not fucking calm down!" the girl snarled. "Aniki may or may not be in there, and-"

"I will check," Fuu stated as she open up the large container on her back, which then sent a strange glitter flying through the air, so unnoticeable that had she not seen Fuu open the container, Gwen wouldn't have believed that it was there.

Fuu sat down in a meditative pose, the other two copying her as they waited. Minutes later, the orange dust came back, and under Fuu's guidance, was deposited back into the container.

"He is not there," the mint haired girl stated as she stood up, brushing off her white clothing.

All the anger left Gwen as her shoulders slumped. "I don't know what to do," she whispered, tears streaming down her face as her shoulders violently shook.

Both the Jinchuurikis exchanged glances as the brunette girl cried. Neither had really dealt with something like this before, so they had no clue how to help their new friend.

Tentatively, Fuu reached out and placed a hand on Gwen's shoulders. Soon, her sobs quieted and she turned towards them, her eyes still puffy and red from the tears.

"We need to go. We can't be caught here," Gwen said as she wiped her eyes.

"Agreed," Utakata stated as he turned and silently walked farther and farther from the village.

"Too late," said a voice right beside Gwen's ear. They all turned around, only to see an ANBU member from Taki behind them.

_One of them won't be enough to stop two Jinchuurikis…_

Just as Gwen thought that, Utakata pulled out his pipe from the green container and blew out multicolored bubbles.

_What the hell?!_

Gwen face palmed as the ANBU operative stared at him in unaltered bewilderment. He wasn't expecting such an immature move from a Jinchuuriki.

"Run," Utakata calmly stated as he turned and fled, a blue and orange blur to civilian eyes. But Gwen and Fuu were no civilians, and kept up easily enough, considering he was several years older than them. Gwen suspected that he was going slowly for their sakes.

When Gwen glanced behind her, she noticed that the bubbles had converged on him and were now filled with a dark substance that appeared to be ink. It soundlessly popped, leaving not even a single trace behind.

_Well, now I know whose bad side I never want to get on…_

"Where are we going?" Fuu asked as they ran miles more into the darkening night.

Utakata paused, causing the two girls to falter and almost fall off the tree that they had been running on.

"I don't know," he finally answered, frowning.

"What are our options, then?" Gwen asked as she sat, her legs crossed, on the large branch. Fuu copied her, while Utakata choose to pace as he thought it over.

"We could try to hide in one of the Hidden Villages, but if it went south, it would be an unsalvageable disaster… I'd say a tiny village on the edge of one of the hidden ninja ones, and then just keep traveling from place to place after that…" the boy trailed off, still thinking.

"We could also just live in one of the forests, off the land," Fuu suggested.

"I think we should use Fuu's idea, but still be near a village if need something that we can't get out of the land or make ourselves, like kunai or clothing," Gwen added.

"I can make clothes for us," Utakata admitted, blushing when the girls stared at him.

"Can you teach me?" Gwen asked cheerfully.

"Um, sure," stated the boy, looking slightly flustered.

When both looked at Fuu, the girl mumbled something and shook her head. When they still stared at her, she shook her head more viscously than before, and audibly stated, "I don't wanna…"

Gwen pouted, but didn't try to force her tomboyish friend into anything. _If she doesn't want to, then she doesn't want to._

"Okay, so is that the plan?" Utakata asked after a moment.

The girls both nodded, and then stood up.

"Where to first?" Gwen asked, smiling sadly as she thought of her brother. _He would have fit perfectly with my friends…_

"I'd say near Konoha since it's the friendliest of the villages," Utakata stated, smiling when the girls nodded.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Gwen as she sadly smiled at her friends. _My only friends, at the moment. Aniki is who-knows-where, ANBU-senpai, whose actual name I never even knew, is dead, so they're all that's left._

_What about those people from my dream? I wonder who they are…_

Gwen shook herself from her thoughts as the two Jinchuurikis began to jump from the limbs of the trees to other limbs. _Time to go!_

**Question: Who's your favorite Akatsuki member?**

**My answer: Itachi, though I think Kisame's the most adorable and Sasori's cool, too.**


	21. Death

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but the plot and Caitlin belong to me.**

**Chapter 21: Death**

_"__A genius that had everything will never understand... I just want to become myself."_

_~Yakushi Kabuto~_

Sighing, Caitlin followed their new proctor. She appeared to be… slightly insane. Just slightly. They seemed to be heading towards the training grounds, though Caitlin could be mistaken.

They were all going fast, Caitlin only barely keeping up because of her training with Gai. Many of the others were falling behind, though Naruto and Sasuke were not among them. They had also trained with Gai, so they were used to speeds like this.

Finally, they arrived at a gated forest, the strange trees towering over the children that stood below them, resembling a giant standing over mice. The gate was locked with a ridiculous number of padlocks, and even a seal. Caitlin assumed that this was some sort of scare tactic, especially when she noticed the sign that read, 'Danger! Stay out!' Though the trick wasn't working on her, or her teammates, it was working on several others, most of them not from Konoha.

A stand was also beside the gate, where Caitlin knew that they would have to sign forms that wouldn't allow Konoha to be persecuted should someone be killed or injured. It was more for ninjas' from a civilian background, since all ninjas understood that in this line of work, death was inevitable.

The proctor, Anko, stood in front of the gates and announced, "Welcome to the Forest of Death, the second stage of the Chunin Exams!"

"She's messing with our head," Caitlin murmured, frowning at their purple haired proctor.

"We noticed," Sasuke replied, hands stuck in his pockets as he gave Anko his best glare.

"Soon, you're gonna find out why the Forest of Death got its name," the proctor hissed, smirking in pleasure at the mostly terrified children surrounding her.

When Naruto opened his mouth with a strange look on his face, both of his teammates slammed their hands over his mouth, earning strange looks. The proctor didn't notice, and continued with her speech.

"Oh, more than one of you will die in here… Maybe you!" she snarled as she threw a kunai at Naruto, blood bursting from his cheek as it passed him and cut the hair of a woman behind them.

_I don't think that's a woman…_

Caitlin watched, almost fascinated, as he took the kunai out of the tree with his tongue, just as she noticed Anko beside them, licking the blood off of Naruto's face.

"Kids like you are killed quickly in here…spraying that sweet blood that I love!" Anko chirped, finally moving away as the serpentine man/woman handed her the kunai.

"Here's your kunai," the feminine hissing voice said as he/she handed the proctor the kunai with his/her tongue.

_Gross… _Caitlin took a tiny step back, slightly grossed out. Other than Sasuke, everyone else crept away, though the other Rookie Nine Teams and Gai's team stayed on the outskirts to help should they truly need it.

"Why thank you!" Anko said happily as she took the kunai without hesitation. "But you know, you shouldn't sneak up on me like that unless you want to die."

"No, I just get excited seeing red blood. Plus you cut my precious hair, so I couldn't help it," he/she replied, her/his tongue finally retracting into his/her mouth.

"Sorry about that," Anko stated as he/she walked away. Anko snickered. "Looks like we have some bloodthirsty ones in this test. Now, before we start the next exam, there's something I have to pass out."

She held up many forms so that everyone could see them. Most everyone looked at them with surprise, not having realized that there was a reason they hadn't went in the forest yet.

"You must sign these agreement forms," Anko said, just as Caitlin put her hand over Naruto's mouth again.

"Why?" asked the ever inquisitive blonde girl from Suna.

The proctor smiled almost cheerfully, and said, "There will be deaths in this one and if I don't have you sign these, it will all be my responsibility, hehe!" The smile fell from her face, and she became serious. "I'm gonna explain the second test, and then you can sign these afterwards. After that, each team will check into that booth behind me."

Caitlin nodded, and took the papers from her, taking one and then passing the forms to Naruto, who did the same. The others, sensing that most of the drama was hopefully gone, had slowly crept closer, and were now accepting the forms.

"I will now explain the second exam! Simply put, you will attempt the ultimate survival!" Anko continued to explain the rules after that, Caitlin listening attentively until the proctor finished.

_So, all my team need to do is get a different scroll from the one we are given, and hope we make it to the tower in five days. Great. We probably need to get a scroll fast, and then immediately get to the tower. That's our best chance at surviving this and passing._

Caitlin and her team silently walked to the booth after filling out their forms, all of them planning and plotting. Caitlin just hoped that they were good friends, and that Naruto didn't attempt to run head first into things.

After receiving their scroll, they waited at Gate 12, quietly stating what they had thought of.

"We need to get a scroll as quickly as we can and get to the tower. It's our best chance at survival," Caitlin murmured.

"I think we should lay low, and then strike," Sasuke murmured. "We should get our scroll around the fourth day."

"I think we should stay until the fifth day and take out as many enemies as we can! Setting up traps near the tower, too!" Naruto whisper-shouted.

"We shouldn't reveal anything about ourselves to the opponents until the third exam. That way, they won't have time to dissect any of our strengths or weaknesses," Caitlin explained.

"Huh, that's a really good strategy, Caitlin-chan. I think I like it even better than mine and teme's plans," Naruto exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.

"Hn," Sasuke muttered, but he was slightly smirking, agreeing with Naruto in his own way.

"The idea to set up traps is a good one, actually. It'll take out more teams that way, so we'll have less competitors," Caitlin murmured.

Minutes later, a ninja came and unlocked the gates.

"Let's go!" Naruto shouted, grinning.

x~x~x

Caitlin paused as she heard the shriek. "It seems that's it already began," she murmured, quickly unsealing her scythe. "Let's hope we can come across a team fast and get their scroll."

Naruto nodded, strangely silent and serious. Sasuke grunted and continued walking.

"I need to piss," Naruto muttered, looking slightly embarrassed, since it was times like these that he remembered that Caitlin was a girl.

"Be quick, Naruto. We need to get out of here fast. I can turn around and Sasuke will watch," Caitlin said as she turned around. "We don't need to be separated in here."

"Alright," Naruto said, as he turned away to do his business.

As soon as he started, a strange ninja wearing a Rain headband kicked Naruto straight into the air.

"Which one of you has the scroll?" the almost wheezing voice asked.

Caitlin and Sasuke looked at each other, and then nodded. They ran at the ninja from two different angles. The ninja laughed, and easily avoided their attacks, and fell right into their trap.

Naruto grabbed his legs, immobilizing the surprised ninja.

"Where are your teammates?" Caitlin demanded.

"I came without them," he snapped. He appeared to be telling the truth.

Caitlin hesitated. _What do I do? I can let him go, but he'd probably just attack us as soon as we do so. Or…I could kill him._

Caitlin's scythe suddenly whipped out, and efficiently beheaded the ninja. Naruto jumped back, shocked, and Sasuke stood still, watching Caitlin's reaction. He had already realized what her decision would be.

Caitlin shook her arms, trying to get the sticky substance off of them. Her face was much paler than it usually was, and her green eyes were huge and looked to be one of the few colors on her, except for the red blood on her and her blonde hair.

"Caitlin?" Naruto slowly asked.

"I'm fine," she whispered. "Can-Can we find a river, for me to wash of the-"

"Yes," Sasuke quickly answered.

Silently, they searched for the large river that ran through the forest, and came across it, along with Team Kurenai.

"C-Caitlin-chan?" Hinata asked with shock.

Caitlin swallow, and then simply stated, "I killed a ninja."

Kiba looked at her with total surprise. "You killed a ninja? That's some kind of joke, isn't it?" Kiba laughed. When Akumaru whimpered and no one laughed, he asked, "You really killed a ninja?"

Caitlin just nodded and walked right into the river, seeming not to care that the water was cold and going fast, since she was unconsciously using chakra to keep her body warm and stick her feet to the riverbed.

"Will she be alright?" Shino quietly asked, his usually monotone voice concerned.

Sasuke sighed, while Naruto answered, "I hope so."

"That-t's all w-we can d-do," Hinata whispered, her stutter becoming slightly worse with concern for her friend.

They were silent, even the brash Kiba, until Caitlin came out of the river, soaking wet and shivering. The two teams exchanged glances, and then nodded at each other, walking in opposite directions.

Naruto soundlessly handed Caitlin his orange jacket. She accepted without comment, and just kept it over her shoulders, her arms dangling out of the sleeves. She suddenly straightened up, seeming to have pushed the funk behind her.

"We need to come up with a plan just in case we're separated, either during a fight or by accident," she announced.

Sasuke nodded. "I had been thinking about that. If we get separated, even if it looks like us, we can't trust them."

Caitlin agreed immediately. "It could be some sort of genjutsu, like a henge."

"Yes, which is why we need this plan," Sasuke explained. "We need a code word, just in case. If someone gets the code word wrong, assume they are the enemy no matter what they look like."

Caitlin suddenly understood what he was doing. _He knows that Naruto won't be able to remember it, and that I will probably tell him that I love books instead of any sort of stupid password. He would be the only one able to remember it, and even then he'll probably say that stupid Uchiha 'Hn' at the end._

"Listen close, I'll only say it once. 'The ninja song, 'Nin Machine', and to answer this you say, 'A large amount of loud enemies is the friend of the shinobi that hides and remains silent. A shinobi must understand the proper time when the enemy is ill prepared'," Sasuke stated.

_I think Naruto realized what this was all about. Or at least, I hope he did. He looked like he did, but I could be wrong._

"But that's impossible to remember," Naruto complained.

"It is a little much," Caitlin agreed, even though she already had it memorized.

"Hey, is this code word really-" Naruto began.

"I'll take the scroll," Sasuke said as he stood up.

Caitlin tossed him a fake scroll, one that she had made while she was pretending to dig in her bag. She understood that she was the lesser target, so it was safer for her to have the scroll. No one would suspect that she would disobey Sasuke like that.

"Ouch!" Naruto suddenly yelped as blood suddenly appeared in his cheek, his hand automatically reaching towards it. "What the heck?!"

"More enemies," Sasuke shouted as the wind suddenly and unnaturally picked up, almost throwing the short girl backwards.

Then, a puff of smoke appeared with a loud popping noise in the now abnormally quiet forest, and three figures emerged from the darkness of the billowing smoke.

One of the figure-_ It's snake man/woman!_- said, "You guys just play around over there. I'll take care of them myself."

The genin had hidden, and Caitlin quickly came out of her hiding spot when she saw Sasuke through the dust. "Where's Naruto?!" she blurted out in alarm.

Sasuke immediately let the kunai fall from his hand, realizing that her concern wasn't faked. "I don't know. We'll have to find him."

Naruto suddenly came out from behind a tree, and said, "I'm right here, you guys."

"What's the password?" Sasuke demanded, his kunai back again.

"Why didn't you ask Caitlin that?" Naruto demanded, frowning.

"Because I doubt someone can fake concern like that," Sasuke snapped back, starting to become annoyed.

_This isn't Naruto!_

"A large amount of loud enemies is the friend of the shinobi that hides and remains silent. A shinobi must understand the proper time when the enemy is ill prepared," Naruto replied, only to have a kunai and a poisoned senbon throw at his face, which he smoothly dodged.

_Nope, definitely not Naruto!_

"So this time it's someone good enough to dodge our attacks," Sasuke muttered, now focused where before he had been annoyed.

The Naruto imposter smirked, and then hissed, "Impressive that you both knew." Then, in a puff of smoke, the snake person appeared again. "How did you know that I was a fake?"

"I knew that you were listening to our conversation underground," Sasuke stated. "That's why I made a code word like that."

"Naruto wouldn't be able to remember a code so lengthy," Caitlin explained, shrugging. "We only remember because we're hailed as geniuses. Though Naruto is a genius in his own way, memorization isn't something he'd be able to do easily."

"I see," he/she hissed. "Neither tired nor ill prepared, are we? This shall be more fun than I thought."

_Damn it, where the hell is Naruto?! We'll probably need all the help we can get with this guy…_

"You want my Earth Scroll, right, since you have the Heaven Scroll?" the snake person asked, her/his scroll in hand, and tongue slowly peeking out of his/her mouth.

Then, he/she stuck the scroll in his/her mouth, tongue wrapping around it, and then swallowing the scroll whole. _Like a real snake. I think it's a guy, so I guess I'll stop calling it he/she. Even though he looks like a girl, my gut says he's a guy. Oh well, not like it matters…_

"With our lives on the line…" he said, fingers clawing at the skin beneath his eye sockets.

Caitlin's knees suddenly began to tremble, and she felt the strongest killing intent that she had ever felt before. _Zabuza's a child having a tantrum compared to this…_

Then, she say images of blood and death, her death-_ Oh God, stop it now, please make it go away!_

Caitlin screamed until she felt her throat go raw, and bleed, until she could scream no more. Finally it ended with a kunai to her head. _It wasn't even a genjutsu, just that crazy level of killing intent._

Caitlin clutched her stomach as she saw Sasuke puke as he woke up. Her stomach was already more than a little queasy, so the sight caused her to gag and finally throw up. It stunk, and was in her braided hair now and on Naruto's jacket, which was now falling off her shoulders.

_Damn it, now we need to go back to the river yet again. That is, if we get out of this mess. Shit, now I hope Naruto doesn't show up. This is too much. I'd rather I die than either of the boys…_

Caitlin could barely move. She understood that it was all in her head, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. _I just thought about it, but this could be a combination of both killing intent and genjustu…_

The snake man laughed. "Now you can't even move!" He then took advantage of their immobile state and threw several kunais at them. _Shit! I can't move!_

Then, suddenly Sasuke was in front of her, and they both had a kunai stuck in their legs, Sasuke's hands holding each of them by the handle. Caitlin suddenly understood what had happened. _We were still stuck in that fear state. We never broke out of it, we just ran right into a new nightmare that Sasuke got both of us out of by stabbing us both with a kunai. We can't trust our senses now._

Sasuke took the kunai out of his own leg with a grunt, and Caitlin did the same, snarling in silent pain. The blood poured from their legs, but Caitlin attempted to stanch the flow of blood by using chakra to speed up the blood clots, and lightly touched Sasuke's leg and did the same to him. _Strange the things you can do with chakra if you have the imagination to do it. And the chakra control, too…_

_We need to get out of here…_ Sasuke was glancing around the tree that the two had hidden behind. Caitlin was quickly trying to come up with a plan just as a snake slunk down in front of her and behind Sasuke.

The creature was swiftly beheaded by the blonde wielding her scythe. It twitched as it fell to the ground below them, hitting with a small thump, which of course would have alerted the snake man of their presence. Slowly, the snake man's body appeared out of the snake, twisting sickeningly.

"You guys shouldn't relax for a moment. Prey should always be trying their best to run. In the presence of a predator, that is," the Grass nin stated, his strange tongue hanging out of his mouth.

The ninja suddenly wrapped himself around the tree, reminiscent of a snake, and slithered towards the two genin.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke," said someone from above them. "I forgot the code." Naruto stood on a branch above them, grinning and victorious.

Caitlin felt her cheeks start to grin more until she remembered the snake man. "Naruto, you need to get out of here!" she shouted, alarmed.

"This one's on a whole different level!" Sasuke shouted, his eyes also widening in alarm at the sight of Naruto.

The snake man giggled. "Looks like you successfully defeated that giant snake, Naruto-kun."

"Hey! Hey! It look like you were picking on the weak!" Naruto shouted.

_Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!_

Sasuke turned on his Sharigan, his eyes turning bright red with two tomos. _It's not going to be enough… If he's so snakelike, I doubt my poisons will work, so there's no use in that. I doubt I'll be able to get close enough to use my scythe… He left Naruto alone, and I'm just an orphan with no name, so he's going after Sasuke, which means that if he charges in, I'm following._

"I will give you the scroll," Sasuke stated. "Just take it and leave, please." _That's not what he's after…_

"Sasuke, what the hell are you talking about? Why would you give the scroll to an enemy?!" Naruto shouted, shocked and angry.

"I see," hissed the man. "Very smart. The only way to escape a predator is to give it a different meal…"

"Take it!" Sasuke snapped as he threw the item at the snake man, but it was intercepted by Naruto.

"You bastard! What are you doing? Do you not understand the situation?" Sasuke demanded, now more than slightly panicked.

Naruto suddenly punched Sasuke, throwing the Uchiha back.

_What the hell is he doing?!_

"What the hell, Naruto?!" Caitlin shouted. _We already have too much drama going on, you two!_

"I forgot the password," Naruto snarled, "so I can't test it, but you're not the real Sasuke, are you?"

Caitlin face-palmed, annoyed. _Really, Naruto?_

Sasuke was also aggravated. "You dobe! I am the real Sasuke!"

"Liar!" Naruto snapped.

Caitlin sighed. "We were never separated, Naruto. Trust me, he's the real Sasuke."

"Then you must be a fake, too!" Naruto roared. "There's no way that cowards like you two are my teammates! I don't know how strong this guy is, but there's no guarantee he'll let us go even if we give him the scroll!"

"At this point, it's just about our only chance, Naruto!" Caitlin yelled back at the blonde boy.

"You're the one too freaked out to understand the situation!" Naruto snapped at both of them.

The Grass nin giggled. "Naruto-kun… You are correct. Since I can just kill you and take the scroll…" He pulled up his sleeve, revealing some kind of seal- _I don't recognize it_ – and bit his thumb, smearing blood onto his wrist where the seal was located.

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted as he ran at the ninja.

"Don't!" Caitlin shrieked, fearing her teammate's safety.

"Run away, Naruto!" Sasuke shouted, his eyes widening.

"Summoning no Jutsu," the snake stated, and Caitlin suddenly realized what the seals were for. _He's summoning a snake…_

The snake that appeared was so massive that Caitlin couldn't help but assume that it was the Summoning Boss. It tore the trees apart, and Naruto was coming right at it, now slightly terrified and understanding their own fear now.

Then, the terrible head struck out towards Naruto, but the blonde fox boy dodged as best as he could, and started to fall, hitting part of the smashed tree as he fell towards the ever looming closer ground.

"Naruto!" Caitlin and Sasuke scream simultaneously.

"Go ahead and eat him," the man giggled, still comfortable standing on the snake as it opened its jaws as Naruto fell towards the opened mouth.

"Eat shit!" Naruto snarled as he kicked the snake's nose. His cheek markings were more prominent, and his eyes had turned red and slitted, much like the demon in his stomach eyes' must be. _Is he… Is he using the Kyuubi's chakra?_

The Grass ninja blew a gust wind at Naruto, throwing the child backwards and into a tree trunk. Then, the snake came at Sasuke, the man riding the snake like it was a surfboard. "Sasuke-kun, now it's your turn! What will you do?" he snarled.

Sasuke, terrified, had frozen. He couldn't move, though he did tremble. Caitlin grabbed him and dragged him out of the way, just as Naruto held the snake back.

"Hey… You alright… dumbass?" Naruto panted, glancing up with blood red eyes, not noticing the extended tongue coming straight towards him. "Wah!" Naruto shouted as the snake man's tongue lifted him into the air. "Damn it, let me go!"

The man made several strange seals as the snake man said, "So the nine tailed brat is still alive." A strange purple glow began at his fingertips. "When your emotions are heightened, the power of the nine tails flows… interesting." He lifted Naruto's mesh shirt, since his orange jacket had been given to Caitlin and lost in the fight. The seal was visible, which Orochimaru remarked on just as Caitlin thought that. "Oh my, the seal is visible." Then, he touched the glowing tips of his fingers to Naruto's tummy and said, "Five Chrome Seal!"

Naruto screamed in pain, and then was thrown by the ninja's tongue. Caitlin threw a senbon, catching him on a tree, and prayed the slender almost needle-like blade held her friend's weight.

The Grass ninja now had the fake Heaven Scroll, but appeared to be too focused on the genins' pain to realize that it was a fake.

"Sasuke, Naruto is right. We are acting like cowards. If we're not gonna get out of this either way, we might as well go with a bang, right?" Caitlin asked, smiling at her friend and teammate.

"Right," Sasuke murmured, suddenly smirking confidently, his Sharigan spinning even faster in his eyes in preparation for battle.

The reptilian man made a hand sign, causing the snake to disappear in a giant puff of smoke. Sasuke prepared for the oncoming battle by grabbing so many kunais that he had one in his mouth and a demon shuriken was in one of his hands. Caitlin tightened her grip on her scythe, ready to follow her teammate into the battle.

Sasuke jumped off the tree branch, Caitlin following behind him, throwing several senbon as she went. Sasuke threw all of his kunais, his shuriken still in hand. The snake man dodged fluidly. Sasuke caught a tree with one hand and one of Caitlin's hands with the other.

Caitlin released his hand after attaching her hand to the tree. The ninja was coming towards them, and Caitlin stepped down on the branch, ready, as Sasuke threw the shuriken at the man, who easily leapt over the projectile.

Sasuke grabbed yet another kunai, this one reinforced with chakra, with ninja wire attached to it. The man dodged it, but both of the thrown objects were attached to ninja wire. They came back, the shuriken hitting the snake man in the face, but Caitlin suspected that he caught it with his crazy tongue.

The ninja wire was now in Sasuke's mouth, and the ninja turned around and stated, "Not too bad." Her fears of the blade being held in his mouth were confirmed as she saw the shuriken.

"Dragon Fire no Jutsu!" Sasuke snarled, his fingers in a seal around the string as it caught on fire, dancing towards the ninja, and catching his head on fire.

"To be able to use the Sharigan so well at this age… You truly are the man that carries the Uchiha blood. Just as I thought… I want you," the man hissed, as his face literally dripped off.

"I had fun testing out your abilities," the man hissed as he put his hand to his head band, the Sound symbol revealed when he took it away.

Caitlin felt her body become frozen again. _Shit, this dude is like a fucking pedophile!_

"Really, you are brothers," the man hissed. "But I sense powers in your eyes that surpass Itachi's."

"Who the hell are you?!" Sasuke yelled, the mention of his brother startling him.

"My name is Orochimaru," he replied as the bogus Heaven Scroll in his hand burned. "If you want to see me again, survive and pass this exam. Of course, you need to defeat my men, the Sound nin Trio, who are on the way."

"What are you talking about?" Caitlin asked, worried.

"Don't worry about it little girl!" he snarled as his neck elongated and came towards Sasuke. Caitlin didn't think, she just moved.

"Caitlin!"

The blonde girl fell to the ground, shocked. _Did he just go all vampire on me?_

"How annoying," he muttered as he withdrew, staring into the trees. "I shall see you later, Sasuke-kun, especially if you want your little teammate to live!"

"What the hell did you do to her?!" Sasuke shouted.

"It was supposed to be a present for you, but she had to get away, and I do not have the amount of chakra left to give one to you also, and besides, with her presence here, it ruins everything!" the serpentine man complained, just as the blonde girl that had turned his hair pink jumped down from the tree.

"Leave you motherfucking asshole!" the cloaked girl snarled, kneeling protectively in front of the blonde genin that had finally passed out from pain.

The snake man hissed aggressively at her, but did as she said and jumped away.

The blonde woman turned towards them, and then muttered, "The name's Megan. I can't fucking believe he gave her a damned curse mark, of all things! Especially the fucking Heaven Seal!"

Sasuke stared at her. "Why are you here?"

Megan sighed. "Don't worry kiddo. All you need to know is that I'm on your side."

Sasuke tensely nodded, still staring at his teammate. Megan silently took Naruto down, and put him over her shoulder.

"Come on, I'll get you to a safe place near the tower where you can stay until your teammates wake up. I'm afraid my… associate will have to come out and help, since I can't carry three kids at the same time. I'm also afraid that you and my associate won't like each other, since you sort of have a history…" Megan trailed off.

A man jumped out from the tree, and straightened so that he could see his face.

"Itachi…"_  
><em>**Question: What's your favorite chapter?**

**My answer: Probably the Prank War chapter, but I like all of them. :)**


	22. Because We are Human

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Meggie-Moo is my sister's OC she uses for everything, but the plot is mine.**

**Warning: Hidan needs his own warning in this chapter. Actually, he probably needs his own warning in every chapter.**

**Chapter 22: Because We Are Human**

_"__You are the leaves bathing in the sun, I... am the roots that grow in the dark."_

_~Shimura Danzo~_

"Hey, money-whore, what do you use those tentacles for?" Hidan asked brashly.

Kakuzu glared at the white haired Jashinist, and efficiently beheaded him with his 'tentacles'.

"You are insufferable," Kakuzu stated as he continued walking towards the dining room, where Pain was cooking.

Megan glanced up as they walked in, and stood. "Can you guys tell the others that I had some business to do?" she asked, causing the worried Itachi to glance up.

_He's heard about the Chunin Exams…_

**He is a smart ninja. He most likely guessed that Sasuke's ambitions would make him enter as soon as he could. You know, I wonder if he has guessed that you are Caitlin's sister.**

_It's very likely. There aren't that many freckled green eyed blondes anywhere._

x~x~x

_Great, so the pedo-snake has already shown up. Just fucking fantastic!_

**You know, it'd be quite ironic if you went to all this trouble just for your sister to die.**

_She is not going to fucking die! And if she does, first I'll painfully kill Orochimaru and then I'll bring her back to life using Edo Tensei._

**You don't even know Edo Tensei!**

Megan jumped along the trees in the gated Forest of Death, searching for her sister. She had already found her chakra signature, now it was only a matter of getting there.

She heard the blood curdling scream before she saw them. "Caitlin!"

_Shit! Jashin damn Orochimaru!_

Then, she saw them. She almost went Juubi mode right then. Caitlin was lying on the tree limb, clutching her neck, and Orochimaru stood on a different tree, and suddenly looked very scared when he realized who had arrived. She sensed Itachi land behind him, his protective older brother instincts getting the best of him and causing him to trail after her.

"Curse mark," he murmured, and she suddenly remembered that he knew Caitlin too, and was probably just as worried.

Everything passed quickly for Megan once she was out of the trees, and it finally slowed down when Itachi came out.

"Itachi…" Sasuke whispered, staring at him.

"Hello, Otouto," the older brother murmured.

"You!" Sasuke shook, slightly with fear, and slightly with suppressed anger. "Why!?"

"Otouto, you must choose: your teammates, or the truth."

_That's fucked up. It's like trying to make me choose between Obito and Caitlin. I just can't. It's impossible!_

**Humans. You should just choose the one most useful to you.**

_That's sad, that you don't understand love or the need for truth. It sounds like a horrible life._

**You don't know anything, human!**

_If you say so…_

"I- I," Sasuke stuttered with shock. "The- no, my teammates," he said straightening his spine, glaring defiantly at his elder brother.

_Good choice, kiddo._

Itachi nodded, and then silently picked Caitlin up, causing Sasuke to slightly flinch. Megan suddenly swung Sasuke onto her back, where he hung upside down like Naruto.

"Is this really-" the boy began.

"Very," Megan replied as she and Itachi took off at speeds that the untrained eye couldn't see. She could hear the youngest Uchiha yelp with alarm, which made her laugh. She knew he wouldn't be this helpless forever, so she'd take as much advantage of it as she could.

"Hey, weasel-kun, do ya wanna go faster?" Megan asked, grinning as she looked at her companion.

"Hn," he replied, a slight smirk on his face. He never was one to turn down a challenge after all.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Sasuke muttered from on her back.

"You're not gonna be sick on me, or I'm gonna permanently make your hair pink," Megan stated.

Itachi looked at her, eyebrows raised.

"I'll tell you later," Megan said, snickering.

"Oh, God, no!" Sasuke groaned with horror, causing Megan to throw her head back and laugh.

"Oh, you poor, poor child. I am so regaling him with tales of your team's craziness later," Megan said.

Sasuke groaned, totally embarrassed. She sort of had that effect on most people.

"There, that's a good place," Megan stated, pointing towards a place where the roots formed a little hidey-hole.

Itachi nodded, and the two easily dropped to the forest floor. She casually tossed Naruto to the ground, along with Sasuke, who barely managed to land on his feet, and then began puking.

"Ew, that's gross," Megan said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

Itachi gently set Caitlin on the ground inside of the nook made by the roots. Then, after she was alright and settled comfortably, and picked Naruto up and sat him beside her, also making sure he was all cozy before blinking at the two that were staring at him.

"You are such a mother hen, Itachi," Megan said shaking her head and smiling. "That's what your name should mean instead of weasel."

Sasuke face-palmed and Itachi gave her the famous Uchiha Glare of Death. And yes, it is deserving of capital letters.

"You are ridiculous," Itachi stated as he inaudibly stepped out of the root house.

"I know, but you love me," Megan sang as she danced out of the hideout after him.

Itachi rolled his eyes, neither denying nor confirming it.

"Good luck, kiddy," Megan said as she and Itachi shunshined away.

x~x~x

Megan stared at Pain, as they discussed various ways to catch Shukaku. _This seems too soon…_

**They are planning ahead. Be happy you were forewarned of this event, and their methods.**

_Still… Never mind._

**Worrywart.**

_Can't help it._

Megan listened carefully after that. She refused to let it come to that. She would save all the Jinchuurikis, and all the Akatsuki would be safe and happy too.

**You do realize Zetsu is an object of Kaguya's will?**

_Shut up!_

**Again, just saying something you might need to hear.**

_Well, I don't want to hear it, okay? So just shut the hell up!_

The Juubi stayed silent after that, and she slipped out of the room. She already knew the plan, having memorized it the first time.

Hearing a strange noise, she turned towards it, and froze. Itachi was leaning onto the wall, coughing sickly into his hand. When he pulled it away, it was stained with red.

Megan stared at him with horror. She had known that he was dying, but it was one thing to know and another thing to see.

The man- no boy, slid down the wall, panting as he tried to catch his breath. Megan silently put his arm around her shoulder and led him to his room. She realized then that he was also without the Sharigan, so he was practically blind.

"Damn it, Itachi. You just can't hide sickness like that. Something needs to be done!" Megan snapped at him as they entered his room.

The teenager shook his head. "There is nothing that can be done about it. I am dying and that is that. Should I die before Sasuke knows the truth, I assume you can tell him?" he asked, sightlessly gazing upwards.

"How?" Megan whispered with surprise.

"Your reactions to things. You seem to know what's going to happen before it does. Do you come from the future?" Itachi asked.

"No, not the future. A different world, where this world was just an anime and manga. Caitlin and I, along with others, aren't supposed to be here," Megan answered, not truly all that surprised that the genius of all geniuses had realized something like that.

"Caitlin does not remember," Itachi stated, not truly as a question, but the blonde girl still answered.

"She doesn't. Neither do the others, except my dad, who calls himself Hemlox here," the freckled girl replied.

"I wonder why…" Itachi mused, getting lost in his thoughts.

"Age is one of the factors, I think. Another part of it- well, are these door silenced and sealed so Zetsu can't get in?" Megan suddenly demanded, alarmed.

"Yes, they are sealed. Continue, please."

"I'm the Jinchuuriki for the Juubi, which is a strange story, that I don't even know the half of," Megan explained. "Another part might be because I have a dojutsu, or the dojutsu that I have."

"Which do you have?" Itachi asked, fascinated.

"The Rinnegan," Megan said, pulling her hair back and opening her eye. Itachi turned on his Sharigan, analyzing the strange eye. He finally nodded, and the woman closed it and put her hair over it again.

"How interesting," Itachi murmured, Sharigan turned off.

"Seriously, though Itachi, Sasuke's going to need you later. Hell, I'm gonna need the help later, which means that you have to get through this funk, alright?" Megan said.

"I cannot guarantee anything, but I will try to survive for as long as I can," Itachi said, smiling sadly at her.

"Oh, you'll survive even if I have to drag Tsunade herself here kicking and screaming!" Megan snarled.

He chuckled then. "Strangely, I can picture you doing exactly that."

Megan rolled her eyes as she stood and exited the room. _I am so setting him up with Caitlin. I want a bunch of Caitlin and Itachi babies running around-Just not right now, of course._

Catching sight of a flash of green, Megan giggled evil, and slowly snuck into the room. A nervous Zetsu stood there, reporting to their leader.

Megan lunged at him, successfully glomping the poor man. "Megan-san!" his white side yelped, alarmed.

"**Damn it, I'm gonna fucking eat you!**" his darker side snarled as she jumped away, laughing.

"Please, don't eat her Zetsu-kun. She doesn't know any better," Konan explained.

Zetsu glared at Megan. She smiled and waved, and then ran from the room laughing. Almost breaking her nose, she bumped right into Hidan.

She perked up, happy. "Make me a real Jashinist, now!"

"Alright, bitch. I was waiting for this. You always get so fucking distracted," Hidan said, smirking bloodthirstily. He gestured for her to follow, which she did gleefully. He led her into the basement, where he drew his usual symbol and the floor, and gestured for her to enter it.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" he demanded.

Megan smiled, and stepped into the symbol. Instantly, her body felt strange, and she watched inquisitively as her skin turned black and her bones became visible through the skin. _Cool…_

"There, that's it! Hidan declared as he stepped out of the circle, Megan following after him and still watching as her skin turned back to normal. _That was awesome. I wonder if you could still see my eye stripes…_

"Hey Hidan, could you still see my eye stripes?" Megan inquired.

"Yeah, but they turned red," he answered. "It was actually fucking cool."

She smirked at him. "That's because I'm so much awesomer than you."

"Awesomer is not a word," Sasori stated as he passed them in the hall, his arms filled with wood.

"Making some new puppets?" Megan asked.

"Just adding new things to old ones. I came up with this new device to shoot boiling water out," Sasori stated, slightly proud of his accomplishment.

"Without fungus and stuff screwing with the wood?" Megan asked, surprised.

"Of course. It took a while, but I figured out what would keep mold and fungus from destroying my puppets should they be in prolonged contact with it," the red head responded.

"What?" Megan asked when she noticed Hidan glaring at her.

"I am so the awesomer one out of us two," he stated.

Megan laughed. "Keep telling yourself that."

Hidan shook his fist at her as Sasori restrained him with chakra strings.

"Love you, Sasori!" the blonde girl shouted as she ran away, laughing.

She sighed when she saw her room. "Tobi repainted my room. Again," Megan muttered as she saw the even pinker walls now.

**Yet you still love him. I really don't understand humans.**

_I don't understand me either._

**Question: What's your favorite song?**

**My answer: The Trapeze Swinger by Iron and Wine. I doubt anyone else will like it though, since my sister hates the song.**


End file.
